Wow, imaging winning and also leaving the first season in the dust right off the bat. This Saturday tvN premiered Secret Forest 2 (Stranger 2), the sequel to the critically acclaimed police legal procedural drama of 2018 with the same cast back led by Jo Seung Woo and Bae Doo Na. The first episode got ratings of 7.627% AGB nationwide, which is the third highest premiere ratings of any tvN drama behind Mr. Sunshine which got 8.852% and Encounter (Boyfriend) which premiered to 8.682%, with Memories of Alhambra bumped to fourth place now at 7.507%. For other premiere comparisons on hit tvN dramas, Goblin got 6.322%, Hospital Playlist 6.325%, Answer Me 1988 6.118%, Crash Landing on You 6.074%, and It’s Okay to Not be Okay 6.093%. Back to Secret Forest 2, the first episode ratings are higher than the highest episode ratings of the first season which came in the final episode so clearly this drama has word of mouth, longevity with the viewers, and a confidence that this is a quality work. Congrats to the cast and crew and tvN can enjoy the next two months of buzz and ratings for the weekend time slot.
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Soompi said it’s best two. But then there’s Encounter. I thought Encounter only got 7 something %.
Secret Forest was really a good drama. The ep 1 of 2nd season was great. I miss the team so much. Hope to see them back once again. Can’t wait for tonight episode.
The acting, chemistry, pace, plot…all daebak. The rating is higher than the last episode of 1st season. 1st season only got 4% average but they got daesang for best drama. Well deserved.
Soompi was only comparing the weekend premieres. Encounter aired on a Wednesday-Thursday slot. If you include Encounter’s higher pilot ratings, Secret Forest 2 ranks third.
Wow. Congrats to the team especially Jo Seung Woo. He became my first ever K-celebrity crush after seeing him in The Classic and Love Phobia movies. He is so charismatic despite not being the standard image of an actor in Korea. He is one of a kind like Cha Tae Hyun.
This is insane..that too during the summer season ..
I can see the ratings going even higher. .I often come across comments like nobody watches T.V these days..blah blah!! That’s not true!! Thus channels definitely need to come up with quality dramas to sustain good ratings..
On a side note 2020 is really churning out some good kdramas.
Yeap, people still watched tv, just they are more discerning nowadays.
Episode 1 left me with nothing that I can understand now, but I know I will later.
So who says people don’t watch cable dramas on TV anymore?
Stranger 2 is available on Netflix and TVing and YET managed to get stellar TV ratings for its premiere.
TvN not Tving
Nope, I means TVing. The streaming app of TVN shows.
A lot of people here were justifying the ratings of the show that preceded Stranger 2 in this time slot by arguing that people watched more on Netflix and the TVing app rather than on the TVN channel.
Well, Stranger 2 is available to watch on the same platforms and still got great ratings on TVN.
Exactly. And it’s funny how koala puts IOTNBO as one of the examples for “hit dramas” when it’s nowhere in the league of the other examples she named like Goblin, R88, CLOY, etc. IOTNBO is not even in the Top 25 of the cable hit dramas list haha. The bias is real.
So what, this is her personal’s blog. She can write whatever she wants. If you dont like it, just skip that article. You have your idol, why she cant have hers?
I sometimes didnt agree with her, but then, this is her blog. She’s the owner, and we’re just the visitors. She doesn’t need to please me or anyone else.
Ps : Stranger 1 also got 4% average and it got a daesang for best drama. At the time, there were many other dramas with higher ratings. Not on top 25 either.
No mention of Hotel Del Luna and Arthdal Chronicles also, which got higher premiere ratings compared to that show.
Nowadays Baeksang has nothing to do with ratings.. even high rated dramas can churn out big wins..for exa – World of Married and When Camellia Blooms…
Gone are the days when people were sleeping on good dramas.
Thus if a drama is getting high ratings it doesn’t mean that it would be overrated..for example this drama..a.k.a Stranger 2.
But yeah many underrated dramas also exist.. and if they are good enough ,they will be rewarded.
Wow. I heard that weeks before the premiere of season 2, season 1 was on top 5 of Netflix korea.
I’m so excited… I fell in love with season 1 so I can’t wait for episode 2 and watch both of them tonight yay …. I’m so happy because of the readings as well … well deserved
Well-deserved!!! I have good feelings about Stranger 2. So far, writing, directing, and acting are all on point! Top 5 premiere ratings are Mr. Sunshine, Encounter, Stranger 2, Memories of the Alhambra, and Hotel del Luna. It’s interesting that Goblin, CLOY, R88, and Hospital Playlist all had lower premiere ratings than the Top 5 aside from Mr. Sunshine and hopefully Stranger 2, but ended with better average ratings. Proves that premiere ratings are just based on star power and hype, but writing is still the most important overall. Encounter, Memories of the Alhambra, and Hotel del Luna didn’t have the best writing. All were quite draggy to be honest.
Well it is quite surprising that how CLOY had the least premier ratings amongst the ones you mentioned but still it had an astronomical rise and ultimately became the highest rated TVN drama.
Despite having the star power of two A-list actors and the writer, I think the lower premier ratings for CLOY were due to the NK issue as well as the plot summary which sounded absurd at first..
Also… Melting Me Softly was the drama preceding CLOY, it must have had some effects as well.
But I agree that other important factors comes into play once premier episode is over ..
Anyways I m happy for Stranger2 and just hope it maintains its quality like the first season.
Yes, I completely agree with you. CLOY had a lot of factors going against it at first despite S-tier cast and successful writer, but fortunately the acting, chemistry, and writing won people over in the end. It was a great drama.
Im happy for the Cast And crew. I love the cast! theyre all great actors. Hoping for increasing viewership rating.
I’ve been waiting for this and so happy that a lot of people seemed to be waiting as well 🙂 Episodes 1 and 2 look promising (although ep 2 seemed slow, just lots of dialogues). Hopefully the future episodes will not disappoint.
This is my most favorite K-series, I love the chemistry between Hwang Si-mok & Han Yeo-jin.
Can’t wait to see ep.3 ?
I thoroughly enjoyed the first two episodes, though I must confess it’s been so long since I’ve watched Season 1, I’ve forgotten what the plot was about. But again I’m captivated by the taut, intricate plot, nuanced acting and high quality production. You can always recognize a gem when you see it. Glad to have it back on my screen.