A press conference for the manzai contest "M-1 Grand Prix 2024" (ABC TV/TV Asahi affiliate) was held in Tokyo on December 5th, and the nine acts that had advanced to the finals were announced. From a total of 10,330 acts, the highest number of entries in the history of the contest, the comedy duos that advanced to the finals were "Mama Tart," "Reiwa Roman," "Jock Rock," "Shinkuu Jessica," "Evers," "Tom Browne," "Daitaku," "Yarens," and "Batteries."
Mama Tart, Jock Rock, Evers, Daitaku, and Batteries are in the finals for the first time. Last year's champion "Reiwa Roman" is aiming for a consecutive victory, and runner-up "Yarens" is also determined to get revenge.
The order of the acts is decided by the familiar "Emikuji" method. Each time, a lottery is drawn, and the act that is called up performs their act as is.
For the losers' bracket, the 21 manzai comedians are split into three blocks, A, B, and C, with seven groups in each, based on their ranking in the semi-finals, and each group takes turns performing a four-minute manzai routine. Judges randomly selected from the audience vote for which was funnier between the first group and the second group, who had just finished their act. The winner then competes against the third group in a survival format, and the one remaining group becomes the winner of each block. The comedian judges then vote for the group they find the funniest out of the three winners from each block. The group with the most votes advances to the finals.
The final will be broadcast live nationwide on ABC TV and TV Asahi affiliates from 6:30 pm on December 22nd. In addition to these nine groups, one group will be selected in a losers' bracket to be held before the final at the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building Triangle Square in Tokyo, making a total of ten groups competing for the 10 million yen prize and the title of Japan's best manzai.
The "loser bracket" will be broadcast live on ABC TV and TV Asahi nationwide from 3:00 p.m. on the same day.
