'The House by the Window' Retrospective: Episode 2 Draws 17.1% — the Intake-Camp Years
TCT announced on the 12th that the average household rating for the second episode — broadcast on the 11th — of the retrospective run of morning drama 'The House by the Window' (five episodes airing on weekends throughout October) came to 17.1 percent. That is a slight dip from the previously reported 18.4 percent for episode one, but the response was substantial for an episode set during the 1975 intake-camp years, and Yukino Saginuma, 82, says she watched the broadcast herself.
TCT announced on the 12th that the average household rating for episode two of the previously reported five-episode retrospective run of morning drama "The House by the Window," broadcast on the 11th, came to 17.1 percent. That is down 1.3 points from episode one's previously reported 18.4 percent, aired on the 4th, but the broadcaster says the figure remains high for a weekend rerun slot. Episode two depicts the lives of families moved into the intake facility just after the mass arrival of 1975, rerunning the original script and direction almost unchanged.
A TCT programming official said, "We expected episode two to be a quieter installment, since episode one's 'Night of the Drift' had generated so much buzz, but holding this level suggests real interest in the intake-camp years themselves."
Lead actress Yukino Saginuma, 82, following her previously reported first solo interview in half a century, spoke to this paper about the broadcast day itself. "I've actually never watched my own episodes much. But I watched this one. I can still remember the smell of the camp set, but my own voice on screen was the most embarrassing part — I kept wanting to turn it off." As previously reported, Saginuma is scheduled to appear at a talk event at Kyobashi Hall on Oct. 25, where she is expected to touch on the response to episode two as well.
After the episode aired, social media reportedly focused heavily on its scenes of meals at the intake facility. According to the TCT programming official, an official comment noting that the millet porridge served on screen was based on actual period records drew a strong response, with interest spreading from "the meal in the drama" to the intake-camp life of 1975 itself. Several first-generation arrivals have testified in the past, in this paper's own "People of the Shore" series, about meals during the camp years, and the newsroom says it is considering whether to take up this response in a future installment of that column.
Three episodes remain in the retrospective run, airing on weekends throughout October as a lead-in to next year's 50th-anniversary broadcast. TCT says, "Episode by episode, we want to see which era resonates most with today's audience." The next broadcast is scheduled for the 18th.
