[Kamen Rider Lucha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guyver Spawn

Toei considers ratings to be a after thought.

That is the commonly held belief in US toku fandom, but I've never seen any convincing proof that it's true. Given the realities of TV broadcasting, the situation has to be more nuanced than that. Toei may not care about ratings, but TV Asahi is the network that broadcasts Sentai, and they absolutely have an investment in how many viewers their shows attract. You can see Asahi's concern over ratings reflected in the increased roles their network producers are receiving in Rider and Sentai.

TV Asahi may have a profit sharing deal with Bandai, but no one in the US fandom knows for sure. But even if that's the case, Asahi's increased involvement in production is a pretty good indicator that they're concerned about ratings.