NHK is expected to soon announce the hosts of its year-end Kohaku Uta Gassen, though rumor has it that Masami Nagasawa will be in charge of the Red Team while the entire group SMAP handles the White Team. In the meantime, Oricon turned to public opinion to see who viewers are hoping for. Research discovered that the most popular choices are last year's hosts, Yukie Nakama and SMAP leader Masahiro Nakai.

In the women's category, Nagasawa ranked second behind Nakama. Other popular choices, in order, were: Masami Hisamoto, Erika Sawajiri, Norika Fujiwara, Junko Kubo, Akiko Wada, Yui Aragaki (tied with Wada for #7), Aoi Miyazaki, and Ryoko Shinohara.

On the men's side, Tamori ranked second, followed by Minomonta and Sanma Akashiya. Koichi Domoto, Yoshio Kojima, and Shingo Katori tied for 5th, while Takuya Kimura and Shinsuke Shimada tied for 8th. Yo Oizumi rounded out the list at #10.