Moonlight Drawn by Clouds Jumps in Ratings and Takes the Mon-Tues Lead Over Premiering K-Bu Bu Jing Xin

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• I am sad because I was expecting more since Moon Lovers:Scarlet Heart is so good. I guess MDBTC got the edge over its one week earlier premiere. But even then, Doctors premiered at 12% and so the figure is pretty much dissapointing. I don't understand the domestic Korean audience's preference but I am still hoping that tonite Scarlet will do a lot better.

  • Well, judging by the comments most Korean netizens think the acting (other than LJK and KHN) is terrible. I don't expect it to do much better.

    • On Scarlet Heart - I think there are too many princes and you can barely tell them apart save for LJK. Just lounging around and not doing much. And unlike the C-version of it where all of them were good-looking and had character, you get the feeling like you are facing a bunch of delinquents in a boys school. Very blah.

      Still I'd watch for IU and LJK. I like the evil Queen too - at least she has character!

    • The C-version has 40 episodes and therefore had the leisure of time to introduce each prince unlike K-version with just 20 episodes. After all, only two episodes have been aired so far, we are yet to see how the rest of the princes will be introduced to the audience. I think at this juncture, they want the focus to be more on 4th, 8th and Haesoo.

  • I'm dissapointed too, I'm expecting for double digits... I hope that the rating won't down for 3rd ep.

  • I'm really perplexed too. I'm not saying that SH is a good drama, but for a drama with so much pretty there's no reason to not tune in for the premiere. I expected the first episodes to break double digits.

  • Moonlight rating goes up because effect of 1N2D. Bogum as guest last week.

    • and lee jun ki, hong jong hyun & kang ha neul were on running man as well
      your point?

    • I dont think that is the reason. This drama is just more popular with viewers.

  • MDBC enjoyed the withdrawal effect from Doctors. That same tender fluffy light hearted romance very much unlike Scarlet which is offering intense darker heavy romance and lots and lots of bloodbath. Seeing that massive jump basically give me the impression that Doctors' viewers just directly tuning in to something of similar genre to continue feeding their thirst for such genre without even bother to check on Scarlet. We will see how Scarlet fare tonight since some may have checked on episode 2 and then to decide on which drama they choose to stay with.

    • lol No the 1st 2 ML ep were a mess so they have all the reason to pick Moonlight
      Doctors is SBS drama and ML fail to keep the audience from previous drama.
      Acting and directing moonlight is winning so far.

    • I agree with OMG on the preference of Doctors' viewers for similar genre. After all, how would the viewers know that the 1st 2 ep of ML were a mess, if they didn't even bother to watch them in the 1st place?

      Based on past drama ratings history, it's quite clear that the majority of Korean drama viewers do not practise station loyalty i.e. they switch from station to station depending on whatever drama is airing that suits their preference. I've noticed that for 2016 so far, most dramas do not manage to keep the audience from previous dramas on the same station. For example, on SBS, Remember's 20.3% was followed by Come Back Mister's 6.6%, on KBS2, DoTS 38.8% was followed by God of Noodles' 7.6%, Neighbourhood Lawyer's 17.3% was followed by Beautiful Mind's 4.1% etc.

      However, even if the viewers switched to Moonlight initially based on their preference for lighter romance, they will stay & more will join in to watch as long as it continues to be good like Ep 3.

• Yay, congrats to Bogummy and moonlight Cast!! Love the drama although i have not watched ep 3 yet. Hope it will stay good:) I can not comment about Scarlet heart because i have not watched it.

• I don't mind the ratings at all because I'm just happy to have two really good shows for the Monday-Tuesday slots. Although that means I have to squeeze in these two dramas in between work, I've never been this happy to watch sageuk.

  I understand that ratings play a big role for the broadcasting companies and fans alike but these days ratings don't really reflect the true quality of a drama. In fact, they only create wars and unnecessary conflicts between fandoms.

  But anyway, thank you for sharing this ms koala. Was expecting scarlet to top the list but this is a nice surprise.

• Typo. Last episode was 8.5% not 7.5%

  • I think the 7.5% was the % of the jump, from 8.5 to 16. :)

• Blame to IU, korean doesn't like IU!

  • I don't think her performance on the first episode was helping either!

    • was NOT*

    • Why do you think her performance was bad?

    • I did see the first two episode and I'm not an anti or hater, I was rather very excited for the drama and I'm not picky with acting so for me I will continue watching the drama.
      But I can still tell the acting was not on par with the other things going for the drama.
      My point is I really don't think people at korea are criticising IU purely just because she's IU and they don't like for whatever reason, to be honest her performance was partially to blame. She was average at best during these episode, you can see what I mean by her performance on the scenes when she was supposed to be terrified of the fact that she went back on time ep1 "with KHN".
      I think it was your typical korean drama acting of the expression "scared and lost". It was seen so many that we sometimes don't even think of it as a bad acting, but I do believe that recently the "Kdrama acting" improved so much that they expect something extra from big projects and that's why she's getting criticised for her acting.

  • Korean love Suzy BUT UF flop!!

• I'm currently following Moonlight and were really the underdog going in to the Mon-Tues battle. Since both dramas have a solid original novel on its belts, together with seems like a competent PD for both, hence the prettiness. I think Moonlight have the advantage of having a generally well-liked cast (PBG & to some extent KYJ), seasoned sageuk veterans (KYJ and senior casts), no acting holes and OTP chemistry in terms of visuals and acting, but relatively new and untested leads. While, Scarlet has the pretty and popular boys and girl, well-liked male leads (LJK and KHN), and big-preproduction budget, but relatively new actors in general and/or new to sageuk. But IU should lay off the deer in the headlight stare and the young princes should take it down a notch.

  • Was Moonlight really the underdog, I wonder? Surely the advantages mentioned above for Moonlight re cast, veterans, acting, PD etc. > than Scarlet's pretty/popular boys & girl, big production budget & newbie actors? I think the Korean audience like KYJ & PBG a lot, KYJ is like their favorite daughter who they have watched grow up, and PBG is a very popular actor since Reply & IRY.

    I think the biggest advantage for Moonlight is that the Korean audience prefers to watch fun & light-hearted stories rather than heavy serious politicking, murder & mayhem. Moonlight is quite similar to the very successful SKK Scandal & TMETS in vibe. On the other hand, I'm kinda sad that awesome serious sageuks like 6FD couldn't get 16% ratings until its 35th episode!

    • before scarlet aired, ppl were saying moonlight is underdog
      now scarlet aired and get below avg ratings, they say moonlight is not underdog but scarlet

      lol

    • Moonlight was really the underdog drama with 2 main reasons: the 2 leads, PBG and KYG are both untested as drama leads. PBG came from R88 which is an ensemble cast, and had the 'R88 curse' looming over his head. While KYJ is a very well-known child actress and talent powerhouse, but hasn't single-handedly led a drama. And the next reason would be moonlight was never known for its big budget, pre-produced, hallyu tag, it was more a youth romance sageuk.

    • I understand where you're coming from, but I'm really curious as to who are the people who were saying Moonlight is the underdog, Knetz, Inetz or the Korean viewers who actually contribute to ratings?

      Before the dramas aired, it was always KYJ > IU, and KYJ's acting experience & skills including sageuks is unparalleled for a young actress of her age. She also led in Secret Door for the 1st half of the drama. PBG may be part of an ensemble cast in last year's R88, but R88 was a phenomenal success, with a highest rating of 18.8%, and is probably the highest rated cable drama to-date. Both PBG a& RJY became very popular trending actors after R88.

      Agree that Scarlet is known for its big budget, but imo pre-production and hallyu tag dramas do not necessarily translate into Korean viewer ratings. UF is an example of a recent pre-produced Hallyu drama which is not doing very well.

      I was checking out Naver & Daum prior to both dramas debut, and the numbers there seem to tell a different story as to the love they were receiving. Prior to airing, Moonlight had double the no. of "hearts" of Scarlet. In terms of Naver TVcast for teasers & trailers, Moonlight had 14k channel subscribers vs Scarlet's 7k, 11m full views vs 8m, & 120k likes for Moonlight vs 37k for Scarlet. Several of Moonlight's teasers have more than a million views each!

      As for Daum, before airing, the internet ratings were mostly 10/10 for Moonlight vs a lot of 0/10 for Scarlet. Scarlet had a lot of criticisms for its casting.

      So, was Moonlight really an underdog from the perspective of the Korean audience, or was it just the assumption of the i-netz? Was there a Korean news article who actually claimed that Moonlight was an underdog? I really want to know.

    • @Livi You hit the note. Moonlight was well receive by the K-audience from the very start of casting. I-netz considered it as underdog bcos of the high budget and idols fanbase surrounds with ML ( for me the hype of ML only fall by it's investment and adaptation even LJK name can't bring the hype - with his drama records). No wonder why SBS was late promoting it in Korea, they knew exactly what will happened.

    • @Livi
      It is the international audience who think that MDBC is the underdog whereas Scarlet is a sure win judging that it is a big-scale production. Actually, we as international audiences don't really understand the fanbase in Korea. Based on the numbers given by you, the fanbase of PBG and KYJ way exceeding LJK and IU in their homeland. LJK and IU may be more popular among international audience and that was how the assumption that MDBC being the underdog was derived, when it is actually not.
      I feel sad initially over Scarlet's lackluster ratings (for the sake of Lee Jun Ki of course) but there's always a silver linings to everything. I would rather it debuted lower than sliding down in the ratings the way UF did. I am into this drama for the long haul for my love for Lee Jun Ki because I know, he will slay.

    • "korean audiences prefer to watch light hearted stories rather then heavy serious politic, murder mayhem" mmm idk about cause there have been many hit drama's that have heavy,serious and melo stories whether they are modern drama's or seaguk.

    • @bila, it's true that there have been hit dramas which were heavy serious melos, but the majority of very high ratings dramas seem to come from the romance, comedy or family genre over the last few years, for example, DoTS, Doctors, Producer, YWCFTS, The Heirs, Masters Sun, Good Doctor etc.

• Goal: hold off on watching both Moonlight Drawn by Clouds and Moon Lovers so that I can binge watch them both after they're over because I'm 99% sure I'll love them both.

  Probably of success: low.

  • I feel you~ It's actually worse for me because I already camped in Soompi now ><

• I never expect like this before, why this always happen to my jun ki????? After scholar who walks the night... he never lucky with his female lead, ughh!!!! Jun ki... please work with A list actress, I dont care if she older than you but I want to see you success in rating battel!!!!!!!

  • 1) You're forgetting that it takes a lot more than an A-list established actress (or actor, or director, or anything really) to achieve good ratings.

    2) The drama only aired 2 episodes so far. i.e. it's way too early to judge which drama will be winning this 'ratings battle'

  • i think the best female lead opposite lee jun ki so far is Shin Min Ah in Arang & the Magistrate. Their chemistry was so damn great!!>_<

  • I feel you my friend. I feel sad for Jun Ki. I wonder why luck still not with him yet despite him being so diligent and being a spectacular actor?

    But don't blame it on IU. She was amazing so far in the first 2 episodes. My mom initially complaining over her casting but when she watched the episodes last night, her view on her changed totally. When I told her over the lackluster rating, she convinced me that such a great drama will eventually pick up the ratings, so she basically restores my faith here.

    The massive jump in MDBC is kind of extreme. Very seldom a show jumps that much in ratings so I am saying that they receive the advantage from premiering one week ahead and Doctors audience pretty much tuning in to MDBC to continue the light hearted and warm feeling of the drama. But with Scarlet Heart trending on naver and so are the casts that are IU, Ha Neul and Lee Jun Ki, doesn't that shows that the drama has intrigued some interest and who knows what could happen tonight, right?

    International audience (based on ONE TV Asia fb) are raving over the show. So don't lose hope yet, W and MDBC also premiering in single digit. I am sure Scarlet has more awesomeness to share.

    Hwaiting MLSHR.

    • your mom know IU?

    • @Corew
      Yep, she knows IU.

  • Haha I only remember Jun Ki in STWTN - who was his love interest again?!

    • Hahahahah Lee Yoo-bi!

• Im very happy to see the ratings for Moonlight is higher than what I expect!! Congrats to Kim Yoo Jung!

• wow that jump is extreme, I think I should watch Moonlight, it is that good?

  • You should give it a try. PBG and KYJ are very good and so are the rest of the cast. I wasn't expecting anything from it, just thought I would give it a try before Scarlet starts. Now, I am looking forward to this week's eps.

  • I love Moonlight, you should really give it a shot. It's fun and lighthearted but there's also a serious undercurrent giving meat to the drama. I hate court politics and while it does have some of that, it's concisely portrayed so that most of the time you're just looking at the pretty leads' funny hijinks.

  • I'm surprise with the rating jump,the story seem so so n done many time i don't like girl in man clothes story even the succesfull coffee prince, but seeing rating jump plus i have nothing to watch make me wanna try it

  • Give it a shot. I was skeptical too but now I'm sold.

  • Very good a way better than scarlet

  • Hi @nada, yes, you should give it a try. MDBC is worth watching! The script, the directibg, it's pacing, acting, and good visuals are all well balanced. It's very apparent why it's #1 in the rating game in Korea for a Monday & Tuesday drama. PBG looking super handsome prince is just a bonus. Man, he looks good on a hanbok!