I think..
If ayu will sing 'progress' so absolutely ayu will be opening performance (again, again, again, and again) for Kouhaku Uta Gassen ~___~
this song matching for opening perform.

I hope ayu'll sing just alone, without her bands.
NO Pecco, NO Yoko, NO Yo-chan, NO Enrique NO Shingo Kobayashi, NO orchestra, NO bands.

Just alone (ehmm... Or just with her dancers? ;p)

Just alone with beautiful (glamorous) gown,
and she'll change the gown with a rock costume on 'progress' interlude.
She'll broke the gown #giggle

progress is a band song, so I doubt she'll be alone. Anyway, if she really did a costume change on stage, she'll need dancers to help with that, so that dream of ayu performing alone just flew out the window. :P

I have a feeling that Ayu's going to start out the Kouhaku once again - for the fourth straight year...

(I still remember 2008, when Ayu started out a Kouhaku for the first time - the first performer of the Kouhaku...)

yyeeeyy she's going to sing Progress.i hope there is the choreography for the performance

I'm excited for progress! ~

progress!!!! :heart

yeah for Progress!!!!!

yes....
Ayu will sing progress....

Cant wait for kouhaku this year....

I think we're lucky that Ayu's not in MSSL, because apparently KeyHoleTV's not showing TV Asahi...maybe the guys there blacked out TV Asahi for the MSSL? (Maybe because of the very high potential of overcrowding?)

they block cos ayu wasnt in it :o

This does not make sense. We are lucky Ayu is not performing because if she was we wouldn'T be able to watch it live? You know we would still get a TV recording a few minutes to hours later, right? So it's still not getting a performance at all while, had Ayu performed, we would get one.

:thud dude do you think before you post stuff like this? Even if it's a joke...it's just...I can't :shakehead

Well, MSSL's over, but now the next thing is the Kouhaku...

Ayu will be once again the 1st artist to perform on Kouhaku
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/kouhaku/artists/index.html

I knew it again.

Great!
Progress will be a great opener for KOUHAKU =))

I guess Ayu was too much stressed with performing later, because her CDL is on the same day. I remember this video were she was rushing from Kouhaku to her CDL and giving interviews while getting styled. Perhaps she doesn´t want this rushing anymore.

They also like to end kouhaku with SMAP, and they get the most rating.
Oh well, ayu's gonna be with the lowest ratings (lowest rating belongs to every opening), but she is going to start the show with a bang!

I think Porno Graffitti are most stressed. They are performing as the 14th act, while they have to travel all the way to Chiba city for their count down live. Ayu's travel distance is less than 5 minutes.

Yeah, that's just NOT fair. :grumpy

In fact, most of the big artists are in the second half; the most would be more to the Johnnys' groups and the boys, which I'm concerned about, because this could end up the white team winning for the seventh straight year.

I just don't get it.

I don't get why AKB48 has to be after NYC, which is after Ayu. Why do they have to schedule it like that???