jTBC Saturday College Drama Nevertheless Drops Below 1% in Episode 8 as Viewers Never Did Return After Criticism on Leads Acting Problems and Story Line

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• It's interesting how some shows manage to pull high ratings for a network even while airing weekly on Netflix at the same time. 'Nevertheless' has poor ratings on jTBC, but it is on the top ten list of NETFLIX in several countries and has a lot of buzz online when some shows get next to none. I guess that makes the show a partial success. I hope what ever criticism the show is getting doesn't lead to less slice of dramas with adult subject matters being made. I'm enjoying 'Nevertheless'. It's nice to see a drama that depicts the not so pretty sides of relationships. It's also nice to see a show shot with a woman's gaze. Knowing the difference between overt sexuality and sensuality seems to be a lost art with a lot of directors these days. I've loved rom coms all these years, but the formula is getting old. Writers keep overusing tropes and barely come up with anything fresh. Really looking forward to 'Lost' with Ryu Jun Yeol and Jeon Do Yeon. Hopefully it's written well and a success so more slice of life dramas get greenlit.

  • I fully agree with you. I find "Nevertheless" quite refreshing and relatable. Women do not always choose what most people consider the right person on paper. And yes, the usual kdrama romance tropes get old. My favorite is the one with childhood friends seeing each other after a long time and being each other's one true love. Just when it's the last episode, it's revealed that the main leads somehow were intertwined since they were children. This trope appears almost in every kdrama I've watched but in real life, does this situation even happen 50% of the time?

    I do have frustrating "how could you do that" moments with the main female lead in this show like when she kissed the guy when he literally had just kissed another girl. But I understand the limitations of creating a drama from a webtoon. And some may also be frustrated with the main leads seemingly repetitive situation but I think it's necessary to show how both characters changed.

    Anyway, raising my glass to toast your wish of getting more slice of life dramas made!

• Devil Judge dropped to 4% in EP9. Didn't see you rushing to write about it, though.

  • Because that was a temporary blip during the height of the Olympics cycle (for the same reason, even reliable rating-bringers like Be My Dream Family has gone down to 10% for its latest episodes). When the Olympics was about to finish, The Devil Judge hit a new peak of 6.321% on the same night that Nevertheless crashed below 1%.

    • Missed the point by miles. But my comment wasn't meant for you anyways.

    • What point did I miss? You are questioning why Nevertheless's declining ratings is worthy of a blog post (by someone who clearly has the right to write about whatever she wants) but The Devil Judge's 4% rating is not. I am explaining that unlike the clear trend in the case of Nevertheless, it is merely an outlier for The Devil Judge. It is all about context.

  • I'm tired of all of these articles about Nevertheless' ratings but not sure bringing Devil Judge into it really works.

    I'm watching Nevertheless and think it's fairly well done so not every viewer acknowledges it's not great. Really though, Song Kang and Han So Hee are in the Top 5 of things like the Consumer Brand rankings. Yes, Nevertheless tanked in Korea but they are as buzzy as ever, maybe moreso.

    Nevertheless was always going to have poor ratings, no matter who they cast or how good or bad the writing. It is what it is.

• It will never stop being funny how stans always use the “trending on Netflix” drivel when the drama is a big fat flop. ?

  • Well,TKEM big bugdet drama only get 5%-7% rating and considered biggest flop in kim eun sook career.But Lee min ho stand still claim that drama trending on netflix in the world and being sold in remote country.

  • It's Okay To Not Be Okay trended on Netflix and got online buzz and is acknowledged as a hit despite its low domestic ratings. So sometimes that argument works and sometimes it doesn't.

    • Besides Netflix rankings/massive international buzz, that show at least had other things going for it. 8 Baeksang noms, shoutout from NYT and Forbes, listed as one of the best 2020 dramas by K-industry professionals, and even the network itself said it was a success for them.

      But my point was, it's ONLY when a drama flops that you hear the Netflix rankings excuses. Vincenzo was a big hit on Netflix too. But I barely see its stans bragging about that because the ratings were sky-high which is brag-worthy enough.

      If a viewer enjoys a flopping drama, that's cool. Good for them. But what is that desperation to convince themselves and others that it's a hit when it's so clearly not? ?

    • Fans understandably want to defend their biases, and the definition of a "hit" nowadays isn't clear with domestic ratings, Netflix ratings, online buzz all being yardsticks. Rarely do you get a drama that checks all 3. Point being, there several ways to define a "hit" and unless there is a consensus on measurement of success, these arguments will keep happening for dramas with impassioned fans that don't tick off all 3 boxes. Netflix rankings do matter, or do they not? I have no clue anymore. ?‍♀️

    • And IOTNBO was called a flop but the network seemed to consider it a success. With dramas airing on all sorts of platforms, we can't just go by ratings anymore. Advertisers want the 20-49 viewers and they aren't as likely to watch on tv. I'm not saying Nevertheless isn't doing terribly in the ratings, just that we don't know all of the yardsticks for success.

    • Well at least IOTNBO got 5-6%. This one is below 1% yeorobun...

  • Only the sex scenes makes it buzzworthy on internet and popular on netflix. Other than that it has nothing to offer other than a bunch of pretty faces who cannot act.

• I found it pretty boring now... It looks it will become like every dramas. I think it was brave to write about college students and their life and their sexe life, a subject that always is missing in other dramas. But the main actors failed to make me feel their attraction and the mouse and cat game became boring... The way they handled Kim Min-Gwi's character in the last episode was completely stupid.

• I get why HSH is an It girl. I do not get why SK is an It boy. His It status seems more replaceable than hers given there's more supply in his peer group.

  Do networks consider a show a financial success of it gets low ratings but bigger online buzz?

  • Same. Despite this flop, I can actually see HSH getting bigger in the future. Girl has star appeal. Not sure about SK though..

• Yuck his face getting so much plastic surgery.Sorry i don't he was handsome and his face just fake plastic boy.

• Are they it girl and it boy? Why?

  This drama is a mess. Their acting to the story itself, sigh. The very first 'most foolish FL character' i've ever seen. Yet, it's so human being, right? Some girls act like her. And some boys are as jerk as his character. But, isn't it boring seeing the repetitive scenes? People watch tv to see the fast pace of the life process, since it's just a drama. We have a long battle with problems in real life, and get tired of the same things on tv.

• I’m definitely more invested in the side plots, especially Sol and Jiwan. The writer did a fantastic job developing their relationship and is very realistic. Pretty much the only reason I’m still watching.

• It is me or Koala is mostly way off target or is it just me and Koala not being able to agree on most things.

  Since 2020 koala praised all the dramas I have dropped and some of them were dog-shit like Awaken, Vinzenzo, and the disaster that was Start-up etc etc.. Or that show with Kim So Hyun(Actress) and that guy who was into a scandal that was removed from the drama due to bullying allegations etc etc she was riding that drama hard and nobody watched that thing lmao in absolute Koala fashion..

  Koala goes clockwise in her taste... People were geninuely enjoying IOTNBO, TKEM, Mouse, Beyond EVIL and now Nevertheless.. Koala didn't like them and discredited them all except Beyond evil because it was not worth time. I do agree some of them were iffy iffy but still content wise entertaining to watch and the best we have had since 2020 and I have watched many dreams since than..

  Nevertheless is just such a new concept and fresh drama.. You just can't put this drama down unless you are not being honest..

  • LMAO “NoBoDy WaTcHeD tHaT DrAmA”
    Are you seriously comparing River Where The Moon Rises, which was included in the list of Top 10 highest-rating dramas of the first half of 2021, to Nevertheless with its 1% ratings? ?
    If you're going to defend this drama, at least don't invent things ?

    • Top 10 highest-rated dramas in the first half of 2021... bruh, there probably can't have been more than 20 dramas that aired in that time period, especially if you only consider the public channels which have higher ratings. It's not even the highest rated sageuk that aired during Q1 on KBS's Monday-Tuesday slot lol

    • Koala can have her own taste in dramas. Also, most of the dramas you mentioned are at least critically acclaimed or award nominees. Like @LOL said above, if you love a drama that's flopping, good for you no one is stopping you from liking it. just don't bring up excuses and drag other dramas just to make yourself feel better for enjoying a flop drama

    • @beanspr Im not saying it's a big hit or anything lol, but it had decent ratings that even went up to 10% at one point, so you really can't compare it to a less than 1% rating drama, and my point still stands.
      In fact, you can't compare any of the drama that OP mentioned lol just because he didn't like all those dramas doesn't mean anything, they still have decent to high ratings and were actually praised during their airing. Not sure why that commenter even mentioned them just to defend Nevertheless, it's still a big flop regardless of other dramas' performance ratings-wise lmao

    • There were 40 dramas that aired in the first half of the year. You can look it up online. In a year about 80-100 dramas air every year including daily dramas and weekenders. All of this is included in the list for calculation. Not to forget RWTMR was in the the top 3 of buzz rankings for 8 out of 10 weeks of its airing and top 2 for its final 3 weeks something SR never had.

    • My reply was for @asad, by the way

    • @Hasy I went back and looked at the buzzworthy dramas because I somehow doubted what you said, and lo and behold they were not in the Top 10 for 8 out of 10 weeks (only 6, and I imagine some of those were bc of the Ji Soo scandal). So please argue with facts and not made up stats. Also, the buzz for the top two dramas for most of the run made up 60% of the buzz, while the next 5 dramas were all within 1-2% of each other

    • Wow because 6 and 8 are SOOOOO far apart in number! LOL! You just made yourself more petty and considering that Penthouse 2 was airing at that time and was dominating everything it is remarkable that River even had the amount of buzz it did when BIG BUDGET dramas like Sisyphus failed completely to get buzz despite having S LIST celebs! Imagine trying to discredit the success of River because Nevertheless has less than 1% ratings! It literally trended on the THEQOO every time it aired! Even now people are talking about it on the KOREAN forums and is nominated for best drama under the KOREAN BROADCASTING AWARDS which is a prestigious award show! Let's not forget the BAEKSANG nomination for BOTH the lead actors! Nobody watched it yet everyone knows about it! HAHAHAHA!

  • Or maybe you and Koala have different tastes? It's not that serious my god...

  • So you wrote this essay because Koala has different taste from you? Okay, but all those dramas still did better than nevertheless lol

  • The amount of jealousy KSH and her dramas get on this site just proves how popular she and her dramas are. Yes she is the biggest actress in the early 20s because she has the talent and worked hard for it so just get over it and stop trying to drag her. She has 11.5 million fans and counting there is no point in trying to pretend her dramas aren't popular or nobody watches them. She gained over 1 million followers just during the airing of her newest drama. That doesn't just happen all the time it only happens when the drama is popular.

    • For real ?

• I find the hype behind both of these actors strangely manufactured and inauthentic. I don't think either of them are going to become the stars their aggressive publicity machines are trying to make them out to be. Neither can deliver ratings or buzz, they lack charisma and neither is anything special as an actor. Both are good looking but so is every other actor in kdramas.

  • I totally agree with you! I find the big push to make these two "stars" really distasteful because I don't like them. They don't have the talent to back up such efforts and I feel bad when I see other more talented actors wasted in character roles because they don't have the right backers. Too manufactured is right. If I never see another drama with these two, I will be very happy. I'm tired of them being shoved in our faces when they don't deserve it.