<figure id="attachment_218585" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1280px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-218585"><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">This year, Downtown has suspended its annual &#8220;Laugh It Up&#8221; series. Who will take the number one spot in the commercial broadcasting industry?</figcaption></figure>
This year&#8217;s New Year&#8217;s Eve &#8220;ratings war&#8221; is going to be a little different from previous years.
NHK&#8217;s Kohaku Uta Gassen has long reigned as the champion. (NTV), which had been followed by &#8220;Downtown no Gaki no Tsukasa ya Arahende! (Nippon Television Network Corporation), which had been followed by the NHK Kohaku Utagassen every year, took a break this year. (Nippon Television Network Corporation). Laughing New Year&#8217;s Eve (tentative)&#8221; will be aired as a live comedy show.
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Since the title of the show is &#8220;Laughing New Year&#8217;s Eve,&#8221; you would think that the familiar members such as Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada would appear on the show.
 But as of now, there is no plan for Downtown to continue appearing live. To put it bluntly, it&#8217;s a program where comedians show their material for a long time. There is already a divide within the station as to whether the show will bomb or die.
In such a case, the most vigorous is the martial arts tournament &#8220;RIZIN 202. 1,&#8221; a martial arts tournament to be broadcast on Fuji Television Network. At a press conference held last month, RIZIN CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara said
 &#8220;This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
He grinned. However, the sudden appearance of the mutated virus &#8220;Omicron Variant&#8221; has increased the uncertainty of the event, from the arrival of big-name overseas fighters to the turnout at the venue.
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In addition, Mirai Asakura, who is expected to be one of the main attractions on the card, suffered a meniscus injury in her left knee in a street fight project distributed by ABEMA on the 20th of last month. It turned out that Mirai Asakura, who is expected to be one of the main attractions of the card, injured her left knee meniscus in a street fight project broadcast on ABEMA last month. Asakura posted on her YouTube channel
 Asakura said on her YouTube channel, &#8220;I&#8217;m still in pain and can&#8217;t run. It&#8217;s so bad that it hurts when I run.
I can&#8217;t run because of the pain.
 I can&#8217;t say for sure that I&#8217;ll be able to compete on the big day.
I can&#8217;t say for sure that I&#8217;ll be able to participate in the big day.
 Asakura seems to have uploaded the video out of a sense of apology for the people who bought tickets for him, but from the RIZIN side, it&#8217;s not easy. But from RIZIN&#8217;s point of view, it&#8217;s not so bad. We don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going to happen on the day of the fight, but it&#8217;s hard to say whether Asakura will be able to control the situation.
With the exit of the rival program and the disappointment, it is not as if the Kohaku Uta Gassen has an advantage. This year, there was a lack of hit songs throughout the year, and the first contestants were KAT-TUN, Mone Kamishiraishi DISH//, and Awesome City Club City Club, BiSH BiSH, and millennium parade×Belle （BiSH, millennium parade x Belle, Snow Man, Dai Hirai, Torayasu Nunobukuro, and Mafumafu. Ten groups. For the main audience of older men and women, it&#8217;s a &#8220;who&#8217;s that? to the older generation of viewers.
As of now, there are 22 groups in the red group and 21 groups in the white group, and it is rumored that there is a &#8220;hidden gem&#8221; in the industry&#8230;
 It is said that they are planning to drag out Arashi, who sang NHK&#8217;s theme song &#8220;Kite&#8221; for the Tokyo Olympics, the biggest topic of the year, for one night only. However, negotiations seem to have hit a snag, and even if it&#8217;s just Sho Sakurai and Masaki Aiba&#8230;it&#8217;s said to be a tough sell.
If none of them are successful, there is a possibility that other stations will take advantage of the situation. TV Asahi&#8217;s &#8220;Zawatsuku! New Year&#8217;s Eve: Ichigo Yoshizumi Chisako no Kai (tentative)&#8221; (6:00 p.m. -) on TV Asahi, &#8220;THE Onitaiji: New Year&#8217;s Eve Battle&#8221; (7:45 p.m. (7:45 p.m.), and TV Tokyo&#8217;s &#8220;Gourmet of Solitude 2021 New Year&#8217;s Eve Special&#8221; (10 p.m.).
 TV Tokyo will compete with &#8220;Loneliness Gourmet 2021 New Year&#8217;s Eve Special&#8221; (10 p.m.). It&#8217;s a shame that it&#8217;s not available in some areas, but it&#8217;s perfect for watching without thinking about anything else.
 Furthermore, &#8220;eating alone&#8221; is one of the most powerful contents in the Covid-19 disaster. On the other hand, TV Asahi and TBS are said to be dealing with a common defeat.
The &#8220;human flow&#8221; that drew attention in Covid-19 is not limited to television. Influencers on YouTube and Instagram are also planning to broadcast live countdowns during the New Year holidays.
 A source at an advertising agency said, &#8220;We expect a large number of people to be taken over by social networking services, which cannot be measured by household viewership ratings.
And most of them are young people. In addition, most of them are from the young generation, which our clients are focusing on.
 For the year-end and New Year holidays, it is more profitable to target influencers than TV. In this sense, social networking services may become the real winner. In this sense, social networking sites may become the real winner. Companies have been changing their approach lately.
In the first place, viewership ratings are one of the indicators used to determine the price of commercials. TV stations have been scrambling to raise advertising fees as much as possible, but is this just another sign of the times?

 Ippei Hara

 This year's New Year's Eve viewership ratings war is in turmoil. The annual "Laugh It Up" series has been suspended, and the champion "Kohaku" is struggling to negotiate for performers. Also, in the martial arts event "RIZIN," the participation of the popular Mirai Asakura is uncertain...

The real winner of the tumultuous New Year’s Eve “ratings war”: neither Kohaku nor Downtown…

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