Are You Human Too, Partners for Justice, and Greasy Melo Collectively Bring in Low Mon-Tues Ratings

With this week’s premiere of a new Mon-Tues drama, the gang is set for the coming few weeks in terms of dramas airing and with it comes a sense of ennui and low ratings. I’ll call it the 7-6-5 group as Partners for Justice is averaging 7%, Greasy Melo (Wok of Love) rose a bit this week to 6%, and newcomer Are You Human Too takes up the rear averaging around 5% in its premiere week. This 7-6-5 prime time drama combo is way depressing but understandable since the one drama I wanted to watch turned out a wok of weirdness and I’m even interested in the other two. The comparative successes are on the cable networks with tvN‘s About Time steady at around 1.5% and Miss Hammurabi on jTBC winning with 5% ratings. No wonder Hallyu and K-drama interest is down, this slow decline feels so notable now more than ever.


Comments

Are You Human Too, Partners for Justice, and Greasy Melo Collectively Bring in Low Mon-Tues Ratings — 33 Comments

  1. I like Are You Human. But I think the genre itself is not popular, thats why. Wok of Love is just a huge disappointment in narrative.

    • I’m embarrassed for the writer of Wok of Love. She had such an awesome cast on her disposal and she shoved them in such mess.

      • I wish the writer will never get work again!! Talented cast is wasted. Smh…

    • @candycane
      Atleast before casting many talented actors she should’ve try to write something. It seems like she is improvising the plot on the spot. Why to jeopardise the reputation of the actors/actresses?
      Many of my favourites have been spoiled on this. Hope they get new drama soon.

    • I’m trying to put my faith in the plot but the drama’s pace is too slow and not much is happening. The premise was exciting but the writer is using too much tropes and the characters are not very developed.

      • I think it was the premise which made the cast excited and they ended up joining the drama trusting the writer based on her previous works. But the relaity is strak different. The writer is even recycling her previous dramas for some scenes. This can be the most lack-luster mess of the decade.

    • I like Wok of Love, some parts are slow, but the main trio is very good. I also like the fact that Seo Won is very much aware of her attraction to Poong and is not embarrassed by it.
      Are you human started well, will see if it’s able to maintain the quality through its run.

  2. This just proves to me that audience knows and demands quality. Earlier this year a bunch of critically praised cable shows did very well in ratings, some getting as high as 7%: Misty, Mother, Live, and My Ajusshi.

    • Misty ave at 6.3%,
      Mother didn’t even reach 6% in any of the episodes and ave at 3.4%,
      Live averaged at 5.8%,
      My Ajushi’s rating didn’t reach 6% until ep 12 and averaged at 5%

  3. Miss Hammurabi is the only interesting drama worth following among the monday and tuesday offerings. Never thought I’d like even like this drama considering L and Go Ara are starring in it, but either they’ve both improved or their characters fit them well or a bit of both. Anyway as a result, the drama is not just watchable it’s actually pretty good and interesting! I like the dynamics in the workplace of judges and the cases have been interesting too. I hope the drama doesn’t do a nosedive all of a sudden and keeps delivering until the end 🙂

    • me too… I thought I would not watch it when this drama was announced with Go Ara starring… she is actually quite good in it, maybe the character fits her well. So far, this drama is actually very well written. The veteran actor is excellent. L basically just there to look cool and he is ok.

    • I was very skeptical about their casting but I had some hope when I read an actual judge was writing the script. They stepped up to their roles like I reluctantly hoped and I think the so far solid writing elevates their performances. Hopefully it stays good till the end, now that would be really impressive for a kdrama.

    • Agree with you @visesten , thèses days i find myself watching dramas that i didn’t intend to and let down those i was supposed to Watch ! L and Go Ara are pretty good ( her performance in Hwayang was bad for me) . I like romcom but i didn’t Watch one Worth it since 201…

  4. I’ve only watched the first episode of Are You Human but it was good. I think if positive word of mouth about it spreads, the ratings will rise. It seems the network put a lot of money into it so the low premiere week numbers are painful to see.

    • I thought AYHT had a really good premiere. Like you said it’s obvious a good chunk of change wqs spent on the drama so I hope it improves in ratings.

  5. I too am experiencing a Kdrama drought… Sigh… I’m grateful for Cdramas right now because Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese dramas have not produced something I want to see.

  6. Towards the end of 2017 was definitely a drought. But there are many good kdramas on air these days.

    I noticed goodies kdramas are mostly towards the of spring to Summer and early autumn. Fierce competition too and everyone is battling for good ratings as they also compete with the summer activities. I think kviewers are probably busy with tons of activities during these times esp summer as it’s school holidays as well. With all these activities, people don’t have time to watch TV.

  7. I’m watching Miss Hammurabi with growing interest. I likee it. L & Go Ara are doing well performing their roles.

  8. I think it’s a matter of poor quality not drawing audience interest, cable dramas appear to be doing just fine with My Ajusshi, Live, Miss Hammurabi etc. Even some hyped pre-produced mainstream dramas on public channels barely scraped 10 percent as their highest ratings but that was explained away as youths watching dramas on devices.

    I watched more jdramas than kdramas these days but I look forward to Let’s Eat 3 next month.

  9. Also this is kind of an elephant in the room but I wonder if the lack of ‘buzziness’ felt in the international fandom these days has something to do with major drama recap sites slowing down their activities or in some cases, pulling recaps?

    I thought it was just one site but apparently others have received takedown notices demanding they remove their recaps of certain shows, it makes me think there are legal issues happening. I don’t know much beyond that but either way it’s still sad for the sites and for the fans.

    • Wow, your comment really caught me by surprise. I think you just hit the nail right on the head. The number of recaps from all drama sites combined has declined drastically from just a few years ago, hasn’t it? The heyday of recaps probably was around 2013 to 2016 and things have steadily gone downhill since. As you said, this could explain the tepid temperature of the international fandom these days. I have been watching the various drama threads at Soompi and the number of postings is rather pathetic across all shows. I had no idea though that there have been takedown notices issued. 🙁

      • Yeah the international fandom really peaked during Descendants and Moon Lovers, I used to notice 2x the number of ‘people online’ in those sites’ stat counters whenever a Moon Lovers recap or update was posted. Who would think a collapse would come so soon….

        I also think Netflix grabbing so many series and delaying subs is part of the reason but either way, kdrama fandom is not what it used to be.

    • Agree, the main sites I get to watch are Netflix and ViKi but they aren’t free anymore. Also, J-dramas are better quality and C-dramas seems to have more choices. Kdramas has too many new stars so there isn’t a loyalty fan base.

    • Wow I didn’t know there was a takedown notice. I follow recaps on a certain site and it definitely minimized their recapping.
      I guess the stations would issue a warning because to them, the sites are spoiling the dramas and preventing potential viewers thus reducing extra profit or viewership. Also, fan drama videos on youtube are being taken down as well.
      However, I do not agree about the takedown. I mean the recap sites are the ones that really introduce new shows to the international viewers or convince them to watch it if they find it interesting.

  10. I like Are You Human Too. The first episodes explain the plot, now the story can really start. We can see the did well the post production.

    Partner for Justice is nice too. The investigation is interesting.

    For Miss Hammurabi, I like the issues they talk about, but I’m not a big fan of the characters.

    It seems the dramas that had a lot of success were the very realistic kind ones like Live, My Mister or Pretty Noona and they all were on cable channel.

    • I think cable channels have definitely upped their game over the last few years because most of their drama choices were overall successes and they were good in content, exploring new plots and genres that would have been considered for some risqué on public channels.

  11. Are you human too is my new kdrama crack after INAR. Although, INAR itself did not get high ratings. I think the plot has potential and I’m interested in how they’ll explore AI.

    For the sake of the budget given to AYHT, I hope it’ll succeed.

    • I loved INAR! That was my last drama, and that was 5 months ago! Somehow, I was not interested in any of the dramas. Sure there were good ones but I didn’t want to watch dark, depressing shows. I want to be entertained. Unfortunately there were no good romcoms lately.

  12. In my opinion Wok of Love would have been much more interesting if they kept the focus more on Jang Hyuk character. Junho is one great actor especially in Melo scene but here his character just fell flat compared to Jang Hyuk quirky character. And it will do the drama much better if they deviate from focusing on romance too much and take chance in exploring our 3 leads unique and fun relationship as friends and foes more.

  13. Are You Human, Too? has rocketed to the top of my list. Great plot turns and sympathetic characters. I’m watching several others, too, but this one is definitely the best.

    I have noticed a serious decrease in recaps as well. Which is too bad, because that is what generated buzz and got people excited about dramas in the first place… They should consider it the free advertising that it is.

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