Is this the beginning of the end, or the start of a new world? I’ve been seeing the decrease in K-dramas being produced and the drop in ratings on terrestrial and cable networks for the last decade, but an uptick when the streaming platforms in the last few years got into producing their own K-dramas. But now even that has slowed and with it big name stars are openly speaking out about not getting work. In recent weeks five famous stars Kim Ha Neul, Lee Jang Woo, Han Ye Seul, Kim Ji Seok, and Go Hyun Jung have all given different statements in various interviews about their own lack of work and not getting any scripts or project offers. The industry apparently filmed 250 K-dramas last year in 2023 but around 100 could not get a broadcast station. This year in 2024 there are only 40 K-dramas on deck to be filmed so a drastic drop off in production amount. This has led only the biggest name stars getting offers while everyone else is suffering, including supporting actors and also rookies trying to get into the industry. This fallout could led to stars leaving actor entirely.
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It's sad because i began my journey in dramaland with them and others that disappeared already ...but it 's the same in other countries . They already are in the field since years and producers want the big top stars or create their own popular actors as in Hollywood 's Golden era ( Jack Warner , Louis B Mayer, Daryl Zanuck, ...) the ones who are less impacted are the veteran actors who always played parents, co workers, ... . And i think that the new actors will never have the same long career as the actors named in this post .With that said some are still there and going strong Lee Min Ki, Jang Na Ra, ...
...and youngers consume dramas as they consume fast fashion, the same goes with books, authors who used to reign in the top best sellers lists , sell less thanks to all the new authors who write a pleiad of sub -sub -sub genres to please everyone . The tastes are always changing ! Still remember when my mother was waiting for the new Danielle Steel or John Grisham ! And the importance of the algorythms of social medias which have great impact in young minds .
It's disheartening for me to see Kim Ha Neul in the list. I was quite impressed by some of her dramas, e.g., Romance, On the Way to the Airport, and 18 Again. I liked her in those dramas.
Is this because lack of money invest or changing of the viewing medium?
To be fair, if there's a backlog of 100 unaired dramas waiting to be broadcasted, why would you produce more? Just air those first instead of creating an even bigger backlog.
This is strange considering K-drama used to film as they air (real-time), unlike China. But now they also film and wait to air. Did their local channels stop airing as much drama? I thought used to be there is a drama weekdays and then weekends. If this is not the case anymore, then could be ratings have dropped. TVN has come a long way from being just a cable channel with low ratings. It's producing more quality dramas now.
KBS2, MBC and SBS each used to air two miniseries a week (Monday-Tuesday and Wednesday-Thursday), plus two weekend dramas and two daily soap operas. Now, KBS2 only has the Monday-Tuesday drama, one weekend drama and one daily soap. MBC only has the weekend drama and the daily soap. SBS only has the weekend drama. See the picture?
Even TVN stopped airing dramas on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so its schedule is down to two dramas a week. JTBC only has the weekend drama.
So it seems to be broadcasting station attempt to survive amidst attack from online platform, by reducing expenditure on drama airing rights? I wonder what shows is used to replace these time slots
I think there are so many distractions... gone are the days when people would sit still and wait for the drama on TV. Younger generations are always out, in malls, or gaming or in TikTok. We also have YouTube, Netflix. Also it could be there are more actors now. And unless you are popular, you may be in the limelight for only 10 years or even less. Even in China, the tops stars before don't get as much projects now. It's a cycle.
I feel like, The ones named here have been irrelevant for while now. On the other hand, I’ve seen the younger ones have constant back to back projects with many endorsements, which never happened before. In the older days, they’ll do one project per year and then go on a break. I still think their dramas offering have been more than in the past. 6 months ago, I read that so much projects planned that they have not enough people/place to shoot (production wise) that they can’t film until certain dramas/movies are done filming. Just last week, Disney (although struggling) promised to invest more in Kdramas after the success of “Moving” and “shop for killers”.
I don’t think it’s a particular a Korean issue, many talented veteran Hollywood stars are also out of work. Drama land also have issue of their own too. It seems, the industry as a whole are still trying to figure out how to navigate through this current streaming service age.
***cdrama land also has issue
A lot of factors come into play here. Broadcast platforms have to balance out their number of dramas bought against their earnings, target audience has lesser time to watch dramas due to work resulting in lower advertisement profits, oversupply of actors/actresses leading to production crews preferring to use either the big names that can draw in viewers or rookies with lower salaries etc.
the main reasons have been discussed by many of the above commenters - severely reduced limited-series drama slots (KBS2, MBC, SBS, JTBC nowadays only have one active slot, TVN has two while ENA has one to two), and a lot of drama on the shelves waiting for a slot (meaning their production company needs to recoup the cost and probably can't film another one). meanwhile, there's the other issue of top/ A-list/ established actors asking for crazy wages ($100,000+), meaning a lot of production goes the "weekday drama" way and go for lower less prestigious actors (you might notice that very few top actors go for weekday dramas) - look at Fantasy Sonata and Wedding Impossible with their lineup of new/ lesser known actors. the silver lining is that many supporting actors still mostly get jobs - I guess the audience like seeing the same piece of furniture regardless of the house lol.
Different audience, Different market. Streaming, Netflix, Multimedia... I do not wait for any drama to drop now. It can always be watched later.
So, like, those 100 dramas are just sitting around waiting to find a home?
Quality of dramas have dropped too. Duno is the script or the budget dropped, so they're not getting better scriptwriters. Acting quality likewise have been dismal. Always the same few famous actors or famous idols grabbing the roles even if they can't act. I guess the industry itself is the problem, which gives rise to more problem, and sadly, no solution. One day, there may not be any dramas to watch anymore.. sadly.. ppl may just turn to YouTube, tiktok and influencers.
True! Quality of Kdramas have dropped. I can't even get into their romance dramas anymore without feeling cheesy or they lack good lines. And, constantly seeing the same actors/actresses since they don't produce enough dramas.