<figure id="attachment_218585" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-218585" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="595d5a18"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2021/12/35b112be24d98b4d2131c6673a2fb943.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-218585" class="wp-caption-text">The two have long been the &#8220;face of Nippon TV&#8217;s year-end entertainment&#8221; with their &#8220;Laugh Out Loud&#8221; series. However, the resumption of the program did not come to pass again this year.</figcaption></figure>
 Less than two and a half months remain in this year. As the programming plans for the year-end and New Year&#8217;s holidays were being finalized, the name of &#8220;Downtown no Gaki no Tsukashiya Aahende! series,&#8221; which will not be aired until 2020, was not mentioned again.
 The &#8220;Never Laugh&#8221; series has not been broadcast since 2020, but behind this is the strong intention of Downtown&#8217;s Matsumoto Hitoshi (59). A Nippon TV station employee revealed the following.
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 The &#8220;Laugh Out Loud&#8221; series is a series that generates profits in the hundreds of millions through distribution and DVDs. The station&#8217;s desire to resume the series by any means necessary has not changed. However, the leak of information and scripts of Mr. Watanabe&#8217;s (Ken, 49) appearance in &#8220;Daihyonin GoTo Las Vegas 24 Hour&#8221; in 2020 caused Mr. Matsumoto to have a strong distrust of Nippon TV. That has become a major barrier to the resumption of the program.&#8221;
 In order to improve the relationship, Mr. T, a major producer in charge of Nittele&#8217;s variety division, personally lobbied for the resumption of the program, and in August, Downtown&#8217;s first special program in six years, &#8220;Downtown vs. No? was also broadcast.
 The show introduced the culture, customs, and fashions of the Showa generation and highlighted the gap between them and the present day. This was the top number in the variety program category for August 8-14. In response to this result, the program was to be broadcast as the same special program at the end of this year. Even if the &#8220;Laugh Out Loud&#8221; series did not work out, we wanted to at least keep the relationship with Mr. Downtown alive. However, the relationship between the two has not yet been fully restored. In fact, there are no plans for Downtown to appear in the year-end special.
<figure id="attachment_53157" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-53157" style="width: 1000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ab7f976c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2019/06/742a14639cf2e98ab937514d3263d057.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-53157" class="wp-caption-text"> Last year, Okamura returned as MC for the first time since 2005 for the year-end special &#8220;Laughing New Year&#8217;s Eve,&#8221; and his physical performance, which was hard to believe that he was in his 50s, drew a huge response.</figcaption></figure>
 Nippon TV has yet to resume the &#8220;Laugh Out Loud&#8221; series. In the midst of this situation, a &#8220;veteran duo&#8221; has been chosen to take the place of Downtown for the year-end special.
 The &#8220;Ninety-Nine&#8221; team is currently being considered for the role,&#8221; said Mr. Kurokawa. We are also planning to use &#8220;Kamaitachi&#8221; and &#8220;SHIMOFURI MYOJO&#8221; for the program, which is similar to last year&#8217;s &#8220;Laughing New Year&#8217;s Eve! A program similar to last year&#8217;s &#8220;Laughing New Year&#8217;s Eve&#8221; is being planned. Both Okamura-san (Takashi, 52) and Yabe-san (Hiroyuki, 50) were born in the Showa era, so we are planning to air &#8220;Showa Generation vs.
 Speaking of Nai-Nai, before the &#8220;Laugh Out Loud&#8221; series began, they were the year-end face of NTV with the &#8220;Guru Ninety-Nine Planning New Year&#8217;s Eve Countdown Special! series, which was the face of Nippon TV at the end of the year. Now that there is no prospect for the revival of the Downtown specials, they are trying to create a new &#8220;New Year&#8217;s Eve tradition&#8221; by appointing the two proven performers for the second consecutive year.
 Last year, Okamura enlivened the program with a novel challenge in &#8220;Laughing New Year&#8217;s Eve,&#8221; in which he took a 40-minute helicopter ride from Tokyo to Shizuoka and jumped into the show to participate in a project. Nippon TV may be at a major turning point in its quest to create a new tradition.

 Ippei Hara (Downtown), Keisuke Nishi (Okamura)

 Less than two and a half months remain in this year. As the TV stations were finalizing their year-end and New Year's programming, "Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Aahende! series" was not mentioned this time either. After 2020, it will be the last one.

Nippon TV relied on the “big-name duo” to replace “Downtown” for its year-end special program.

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