Football Hour


Football Hour is a Japanese comedy duo consisting of Terumoto Gotō and Nozomu Iwao, both from Osaka. They are performers for the entertainment company Yoshimoto Kogyo. They graduated from the Yoshimoto NSC Osaka 14th generation class.
The unit's material is created by both Goto and Iwao.

Members

Both Gotō and Iwao were in prior units before the formation of Football Hour. Gotō was in the comedy duo Gotō-Tenma from 1994 to 1999 and Iwao was in the comedy duo Dress from 1994 to 1999. Both of them were graduates of the 14th generation class from Yoshimoto NSC Osaka. In April 1999, after both of their previous units were disbanded, the two partnered up and formed Gotō-Iwao, debuting in May of the same year. They changed their unit's name to Football Hour just 2 months after, in July.
As classmates from Yoshimoto NSC, Gotō and Iwao mutually approved of each other's abilities in comedy, and thus chose to partner up with each other after Iwao's consultation with comedian Tomonori Jinnai and Gotō's consultation with Komoto from Jicho Kacho. Jinnai was supportive of the idea, but Komoto believed that the combination would not work as their individual characters are too strong.
In 2000, the duo received the best newcomer award at the ABC Owarai Newcomer Grand Prix. The next year, they entered M-1 Grand Prix and placed 6th. The duo made it as a finalist again the following year, placing 2nd as the runners-up and finally winning the competition in 2003.
The duo was propelled into popularity afterwards and furthered their career in Tokyo, where they now appear on numerous television programs. Gotō became one of the more prominent television presenters after the retirement of Shinsuke Shimada after 2011.

Achievements