SBS Fri-Sat Drama Backstreet Rookie with Ji Chang Wook and Kim Yoo Jung Ends with Average 6.6% AGB Nationwide Ratings

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• It is actually 6.3% AGB Nationwide Ratings. Arrogant fans of JCW and KYJ may be hiding somewhere now after boasting that it will be the biggest drama of 2020 and will hit 20% ratings. Lol. Karma is real.

  To add to that, they barely achieve huge overseas popularity because they are completely overshadowed by IONTBO during its airing. So, stop using iQiYi coz it is nowhere Netflix's level and reach.

  So, happy that your bias achieve another low-rated drama in their careers and LMH with TKEM proved that he is unbeatable despite of his low in his career.

  • they're in ig and still boasting

  • Could not care about the rest you are saying, but saying that iQiYi is nothing compared to Netflix is the "Western-way" of thinking. When "My Love From The Star" was streamed 14.5 billion times in China... Guess what platform it was on? - iQiYi... Calling iQiYi a small dog is almost defamatory...

    • This was spot on.. Iqyi is certainly not a small dog..But yeah during MLFTS there was no Hallyu Ban in China so I don't know the actual difference between then and now. But I read somewhere that the number of IQYI subscribers at the moment is quite hugeeeeee!!
      I haven't seen BR yet but was just checking out the reviews..
      However I don't think I will watch this due to the unfavorable reactions..
      Still it is true that BR was a hit internationally and topped IQYI viewership.

    • Can't say that it is an international hit. IONTBO is the current it drama of the moment. And we cannot hear any news from other countries talking about BSR. It is all about IONTBO.

      Maybe BSR is only hit among Chinese viewers. But we cannot determine how many of them are watching the drama and if their numbers are comparable to MLFTS.

  • Not as big karma as Kim Soo Hyun fans that like "15% and trending"
    I mean, Kim Soo Hyun is that big star compare to LMH.

    • You sure know how to hit back..???

    • Why are you draging KSH here ??

    • it's one thing when Ji chang wook or Kim Yoo Jong fans wish they have a successful drama, they need a high rating drama and the drama ended up fairly good-mediocre. On the other hand, Kim Soo Hyun has Moon Embracing The Sun, Dream High, MLFTS and the boasting 15% hurts more because he is on top of the rating game.

      Kinda funny seeing this because BR is more than expected while it's okay is fall out from the rating expectation.

      Story expectation: BR has twist regarding old lover and younger girl things but it's alright, you can watch it just for entertaining purposes and drop it without much thought.
      IO: disappointing, the portrayal mental health is not in an offensive way but the writing is messy and justifies a bad behaviour, it feels cheap way to end a story, they struck gold with encounter PD and the actors, the story alone doesn't connect, doesn't hold up. It's like they just want to touch everything in the surface but presented it as deep, the payoff of the story is so small, the actors are what the payoff feels better.

  • I hate iQiYi's subtitle. Too much errors. Episode 15 for example, 'Boon-he' and 'Gong-hee' instead of the right 'Boon-hee'. And they're translate every useless things too (like 'LIFESTYLE PLATFORM, GS25').

• I watched this entire drama for my girl. I’m sad that I waited two years for a new drama from her and it turned out to be low quality. I hope she chooses a better drama next time, maybe a new genre since it has been romantic comedy three dramas in a role. The writing was poor and the story wasn’t that good. I’m upset by no kiss at the end but romance wasn’t develop that well in the first place. I never want to see a drama from this writer ever again. The highlight is my girl gave a beautiful performance and was gorgeous throughout the drama.

  • KYJ is really good with this drama and the no actual kiss is a slap to people who scream "overly sexual young girl with older men" when they see just picture and not watching the drama.

    Despite the "controversy", this drama actually gets its name out there.

• This drama wasn’t the worse this year but man I’m not sure why the PD bothered with it. He did The Fiery Priest which was last year’s best drama IMO along with Punch and Whisper. Even the laughable and godawful Fashion King was sliiiighly better than BSR. What a downgrade in terms of budget, quality and cast.

  Anyway, good luck to him in the future - I do hope he goes back to the genre he does best. As for the cast, JCW is on a roll of picking the worse of the lot. Not sure if this is an upgrade from Melt but I can still see why he picked that - not sure what he was thinking here. Still, all that said, ratings wasn’t as bad as expected. It’s 1% lower than King, but also had no expectations going in unlike King which was extremely hyped. So all in all, not bad.

• I actually just watched it today since I don't really like waiting for each episodes to come every week. I just hate waiting so I decided to wait until the drama was done. I've heard so much complain about it due to some sexual nature of the drama but when I watched this drama from first to the end, I did not see any sexual content or gesture so I'm kind of shocked why it was viewed that way. The drama was poorly written but I do like the actors in this drama which made it bearable.

  • People just want to trash the drama from EP 1 and like you said. People who watched till the end will not find it sexual because it has context and actual normal progression.

    The arc for the main character start as finding her love but at the end, she realised what she long for is family and sense of accomplishment since she is a dropout.

    The arc for the main guy is about how to let go, he doesn't let go of anything and he did, his love, his job and follow his heart.

    It's a simple drama with everyday people but audience are out with their pitchforks because a young girl kiss a grown man out of impulse without seeing what happen after that.

• i watched simply bec of the backlash and out of curiosity because of the hate that it got during airing esp on twitter. One thing i can say, is that the leads have a lot of followers for watching the entire drama? or it's their cup of tea. i mean there was not much story, was dragging especially episodes 15 and 16. Kim yoo jung acting became repetitive also, cant blame her because there was no story to act. her fake wide eye grin was there every episode.
  JCW, i hope he chooses quality over quantity. as for their chemistry, i find puppy and saet byul chemistry more powerful than Saet byul.and Dae Hyun. there were scenes that Kim.Yoo Jung looked so young. so young next Ki chang wook.
  i respect those who say that this is the best drama for them hahhaha. to each their own.
  For me, it lacks quality, there was no plot, dragging. the leads look beautiful Individually but i cant see them as a couple. acting- given the script- i think they did great.

  • With good plot and storyline even a nwbie can bring rating and become an actor
    But a real and talented actor is the one who accepts a drama with no plotline story low quality but makes it talk of the town
    Best example
    Ppl waiting for Koala to post abt BR so they can give their so called opinions
    Why not use ur energy to talk abt how good ur drama is

    • this is kyj fans saying for making themselves feel better. talk of the town? yes you are right. BR is the best example of talk of the town of how bad the drama is. no story line, poor quality, how controversial the drama is, etc, this is what ppl talking about. just can see it in the comments. in addition to the popular pd, popular actors, yes it become the talk of the town. and you are proud with this?

• This drama could have been for newcomers in k-ent, those who are one year into the business and given a break to star in a drama. Not a good project for established names like JCW and KSY

• I haven't watched the final episodes but the two leads are really cute together. I do skip most of the scenes with his webtoon artist friend because he doesn't really add much to the story. This drama was a bit strange in that the 2nd female lead seemed to have more "story weight" than KYJ did...so although the two leads were cute together and the age difference was a non issue for me, the romance between the leads was sort of an afterthought. And maybe that was deliberate because of the source material and KYJ's age. I just turn my brain off and Am smiling when I'm watching this show so it's not the worse thing I've watched. JCW's last drama Melt was unwatchable. Didn't find anything good about that one.

  Wow, KYJ is just gorgeous in this show. She's really turning into a stunning young woman. She was always super talented and cute but wowsa - and I'm female! JCW and KYJ visuals are sure pretty. LoL.

• finally u post about BR drama. I've been waiting to review about this drama. btw it's not 6.6%. it's 6.3% if u look it in Wikipedia. i really wondered why the fans want to lie and brainwash theirself saying that the ratings and achievements was superb. I've encountered a lot of this saying in ig. 1st of all, 6.3% as average in fri sat sbs slot is pathetic. to date, BR held the lowest rating in the all drama that has been airing in sbs 2020. so please don't delusional yourself that this drama would get an award.they even unable to attain double digit like their predecessors and all 2020 sbs drama. 2nd, they boasted that BR in international platform is popular. i agree with this. but that's all caused by JCW hallyu effect. I'm sorry KYJ, u rode on the JCW popularity this time, just like in the litm era. why i dared to say it's caused by JCW? just go see his rice wreath. that's the 1st time i saw dozens of rice wreath given by fans from around the world. thanks to JCW. but still the drama performed poorly domestically. 3rd is about the quality of the drama. one if the reason why i very turned off to watch this drama is because of the lightning. i know it's was done during pandemic. but can't they did it better? like any other drama which also has been shooting during the the pandemic? when it was daylight, it's so obvious they used background lighting, make the face and environment turned gray. and the roads is so fake! and the ppl walking around also look so fake. even the buildings looks so fake. no natural sunlight. so this might be lesson for KYJ fans for stop being arrogant boasting that she only look for a 'quality' drama. not quantity. boasting that's why she rejects many drama previously because she looked for the quality one. yeah right. And this is the last one. this is just my opinion. i think the production team and staff has a high ego. despite so many controversial issues and problems, not a single apology was issued by the team. can't they at least apologise once? even when they were asked to delete the problematic scenes, they chose to ignore it. i can't help to think that the team has a high ego.

  • ?. no comment but I kinda like your review as I'm now fully convinced to not watching this drama. LMAO!

  • This drama has one of the best street vendor realistic looking Kdrama out there. Convenience store is always overly bright, because that's how people see it. The street is always busy, the people are packed because they live in small alley. I guess people are too used to Kdrama scenery and forget that real life doesn't look like that.

    This is one drama when there are other people doing something else unrelated to the drama in the background like a real life than an empty street or weird standing people. Even at the hospital, there are other patients who reacted slighty or more active.

    Truly a comment that does not watch the drama.

    If anything, the direction, filming and acting is the stand out one.

    • no it's not realistic at all. they shooted it in a studio. the setup is super unrealistic. stop lying yourself. while IONTBO also was shooting in studio, they managed to produce the hospital scenes realistically even the daylight lighting looks natural. but BR isn't. the actors' face turned gray whenever they have daylight scenes at store or any near the store. because there is no natural sunlight. even the sky looks so unnatural. for instance, when saetbyul met dalshik at his place, you really can see the fake building, and fake sky. and saetbyul face become dark because the lighting shone from her back, while dalshik face become so brightly gray because the light shone directly at his face. the quality would be better if they shooting it at the real store with real sunlight and real asphalt road. The unrealistic setup really bring the quality down.

    • Aren't you the one who said they did this because of corona? The set is because of corona.

      Your comment about lighting didn't negate the setting and the backdrop. Have you shoot in real life and in convenient store? It's not pretty or dreamy, real life is grey and an unbalanced, this is a kin to Kdrama with more pop out colour

      Count the number of people on the background and say that it's empty , look at the people in the hospital and see if it's bad. Tsk tsk

    • @popcorn

      I've never said anything about empty.. where was this coming from? i just said about unrealistic setups. it's look fake. even the wet road looks fake. yes I've mentioned about pandemic. that's why i criticized, can't they make it more real? the environment doesn't feel realistic to me. the interior design of the store is ok, but the exterior is not. so the setups especially the lighting in the studio reduce the quality of the drama. and please, u ask me if i have shoot in a store? it's sound a stupid question for me. but i can say i have seen a drama shooting in a store during pandemic. and they used a real store, real building, real roads, etc. well, let's just wait for that drama to be airing. later u will understand what I'm talking about a high quality production. a pandemic isn't a reason to produce a bad quality setup. i didn't believe the BR didn't have budget to produce a better quality drama. afterall, it's the 1st lifetime drama, airing in sbs, and is bought by several international platforms like iqiyi. so they actually has a lot of budgets to produce a better quality one

    • what you think as normal is "drama normal", go filming in real life and see how colours work.
      BR has a good setting, clear background and normal looking alley.
      It's akin to Jdrama and that's a natural style while KDrama put up the filter and staged to make drama looks "ideal"
      BR setting is a messy alley when the convenience store is like the lighthouse of the neighbourhood. It's bright and stands out in the messy patch building.

      All your complain was fake sky in dalshik place and forget that one scene is probably worth 1 minutes of the whole drama.
      I am telling you other composition of the drama that makes it look normal, everyday life and great and your only argument is "one building that look fake"
      sigh

    • @popcorn

      I just know it's so hard to debate with ignorant ppl like you...suddenly said what i only talk is ALL about the fake sky.. sighh #facepalm. well, if that fake things looks normal to you, there's nothing I can say. Even IONTBO used fake buildings but still look NORMAL, can't feel it's fakeness. Can't help if you prefer a poor and low quality production like BR. the example i can give is IONTBO. IONTBO is one the production that can produce a high quality drama even in pandemic. nothing looks fake like in BR production.

• 6.3% is the lowest ever since SBS started the Fri-Sat slot in 2019. Maybe is time for SBS to rethink their strategy. This is no longer the best time slot compare to when it just started in 2019 or is it the show that’s the problem?

  In fact I don’t mind both leads as long as the story is good. JCW is one of those that I am interested in watching but I skipped his last two dramas. The next one don’t seem promising too. He has much better drama during his pre-MS days.

  As for KYJ, she should choose drama with more depth too. I like her when she was a child actress. In fact she is the only one that I know among her generation of child actresses and I was very impressed by her (especially when she acted in TongYi), but as an adult, I don’t find her acting as impressive anymore. Maybe is the genre she picked. That’s why I would like to see her in a drama with more substance.

  • I don't think that they should scrap this timeslot because Hot Stove League and Hyena did well this year.
    I think it depends on the drama quality whether it would get high ratings or not.
    6.3 avg maybe low..but I think this is a decent one for BR given all the backlash that the drama faced initially. Most importantly all public channel dramas are struggling right now to reach the double digit mark.
    I just hope the next drama covers up SBS' losses.

  • In the grand scheme of things, I do not think that the ratings were significantly worse than Nokdu Flower and The King - the dramas that had the second and third lowest ratings during the Friday-Saturday time slot on SBS. The higher average rating of Nokdu and TKEM is mainly driven by the first part of its run, whilst BR has higher ratings for its second part. BR's finale was also higher than both (much higher in fact).

    Quite honestly, TVN has the same issues right now. The ratings for their Saturday-Sunday is now hoovering between 5-7%, but they have seen better days with CLOY, Mr Sunshine and Memories of the Alhambra.

    But it is not the timeslot that is the problem, it is the quality of the drama.

    • nokdu flower and tkem at least has several episodes which achieved double digit ratings. so BR is the worst SBS fri sat so far since none of the episodes were able to have double rating per episode as overall.

    • @hjw you are wrong. Nokdu Flower had a double digit rating in the first episode only that too for the 2nd part .Its ratings declined later on. Similar thing with TKEM..it managed to touch double digits in barely 2-3 episodes for a single part.
      But this is a fact that BR is the only one which couldn't go for a double digit in its entire run..But if you look at the trend, its viewership did increase.

• JCW is quite a talented actor but sad that all his projects after the military are a flop.MMS was boring,BR is another boring drama.No chemistry betwen JCW and KYJ.kYJ is hardly expressive.It was that fans of both leads were simply noisy for no reason added to it was the noise marketing.LOL when the fans anticipated 20% rating,sad to say it never even reached double digit?

  • I do not understand why people always say that... People are blinded by emotions, but the facts speak for themselves:

    Highest rating of JCW's dramas:
    - Healer: 9.4%
    - Suspicious Partner: 8.7%
    - Backstreet Rookie: 9.5%

    Backstreet Rookie is not a good drama, but a flop? - Rating wise, it is pretty much up JCW's alley

    • Yes agreed in terms of ratings but if you’re comparing quality, both Healer and Suspicious Partner are far better received. Like I said in my comment, ratings isn’t bad necessarily, but heavens the quality is trash vs his pre-military choices.

      Also, you aren’t the real ady. That’s not even a question because you sound not only articulate but someone who can actually speak the language.

    • I am adyjunjihyun. I come from a parallel world where there is no Republic of Korea, but a Kingdom of Corea. Since I live in a different world, I was raised differently. I had more time to meditate, read and study. Hence, I am more timid, have no weird tantrums and can speak English. Also, I am a big anti of LMH and instead I am a sasaeng of KSH. However, our love for Jun Ji-hyun is still fiery

    • This alternate version of @adyjunjihyun from a parallel universe is cracking me up..Seems like you have a love -hate relation with PJE dramas..You love JJH but had to watch LMH of whom you claim to be an anti ,in LOTBS..
      As for me I m neutral towards al l of them..

    • I was not aware that LMH was in LOTBS. In my universe, the male lead was played by Hyun Bin. LOTBS was very good, it won even Daesang in my universe. The scene where his dad died... Wow, Hyun Bin was very convincing. I have not watched your version of LOTBS, but I hope that the male lead did not butcher that scene with overacting, a deer-in-the-headlight look and no sense of urgency. Imagine that he Baywatch-walked to his dying dad as if the supermarket was closing in five minutes time and he still had to get the beer for the family gathering... Imagine that... That would be pure comedy...

    • @ady (blue)
      Kindly check please. Not hating but please check. Im a fan of JCW so im familiar with the VR of his dramas
      SP 2017- AGB Nielsen nationwide highest rating was 10.5 % episode 26/40 -' comparing apples to apples

      But no need to compare.....

    • @ady
      Correction!

      Suspicious partner- 10.5% AGB nielsen Nationwide

    • ady blue you are the one blinded

      i didnt want to comment but you got it wrong. you did not compare apples to apples. you used AGB nielsen for BR and TNmS ratings for SP and Healer
      Healer- 10.3% episode 13 (Highest rating)
      SP- 10.5% (highest rating)- ep 26
      B.R- 9.5% (highest rating)-ep 15

      Thanks!!!!!

    • @Fay and Paco. My apologies... You are right. Normally the tables of Wikipedia put AGB Nielsen first followed by TNMS. But for SP and Healer, they have a different format. Truth of the matter, the difference is still not that big. In fact, if I use TNMS for BR, then BR ended on 8.8%, which is higher than SP. But you are right that Nielsen is more relevant.

      However, my original comment stands. People are too stuck on the quality that they actually forget the facts. Which kinda blurs reality, BR is not a flop if you look at JCW's repertoire. It is a bit similar to his more critically acclaimed stuff. MMS is however a dissonant, BR not so much...

  • @adyjunjihyun ? I think U have watched LOTBS and MLFAS..loved both of dramas..LMH JJH KSH great trio ?