This may be a case of expectations being set sooooooooooo insanely low that simply existing to make it on air is a win. I’m kidding of course, even the more beleaguered drama is still watched on its merits, no one pity watches anything. School 2021 was originally School 2020 which tells you how long this newest chapter of the School franchise on KBS took to the small screen. It’s finally here and with mixed results. The ratings are super low premiering at 2.8%, it’s a high school drama and without any well known to drama viewer leads. That’s not unusual as School is all about finding the next top drama stars but the leads of 2013, Who are You, and 2017 all had other dramas under their belts and some even leading roles prior. Here it’s really relative newbies with Kim Yo Han, Cho Yi Hyun, Choo Yeong Woo, and Hwang Boreumbyeol. But the initial impression reviews from the domestic viewers have been unexpectedly positive – audiences find it comedic in a good way, the plot moves fast, the second male lead seems like a drama stealing character, the other leads are good enough, and it’s a harmless entertaining watch. So there you have it, if teacher-high school forbidden romance in Melancholia isn’t your thing, spend Wed-Thurs with high school-high school romance and love triangles of the classic variety.
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It basically lost half of the audience for “Dali and the Cocky Prince,” despite both competing cable dramas (“Reflection of You” and “Melancholia”) drawing ratings below 3% too. A race to the bottom in terms of commercial performance, basically.
So if the leads are all newbies then it’s okay for a less than 3%. Whereas if this starred Kim Sae Ron or someone who is already known this would have triggered comments about the drama flopping hard.
I guess with previous School 2013 having LJS and KWB as leads made this newest season uninteresting for me.
School 2013 was the School series that have really high tv ratings and buzz, succeeding ones have a more loyal fanbase and hype but less spectacular tv ratings. Same situation with Extraordinary You (an example), strong online buzz but mediocre ratings. And sometimes it works for this kind of shows and rising stars.
After all the negativity this project has experienced it’s nice to see for the newbie cast to finally get some positive feedback.
I doubt KBS were expecting this to get good ratings anyway so they are probably just relieved it managed to get in the 2% range.
Better than Spring Breeze which went down to 1%
Well, i binged on this drama School 2021. The ratings will predominantly increase on upcoming episodes.
Second episode drew 1.6%, despite its 30-minute head start against “Tomorrow’s National Singer.” “Reflection of You” had better ratings on a later time slot.
I lost interest in School series after 2015, not that it was a bad drama it was too much for me and School 2013 is much more closer to the reality than 2015 and 2017, School 2013 remains the best drama not just among the three but one of the best Korean dramas I’ve watched, I hope this one gave me the feeling when I watched 2013, hope this one is actually good.