I laugh at how low ratings expectations have fallen that finally hitting 10% seems like a victory however small. With that said, SBS Wed-Thurs drama While You Were Sleeping hasn’t lived up to its famous name cast and screenwriter hype, I enjoy watching it and am not disappointed in the narrative, acting, or quality, but in terms of expectations to deliver ratings it’s not lived up to its name so to speak. This Tuesday’s new episode cemented itself as the time slot leader for good, taking in 8.6% and 10% AGB nationwide. Former ratings leader Hospital Ship is firmly in second place afloat with 8.3% and 8.6%, and Mad Dog on KBS brings up the rear a not bad 6.9%. Sleeping sorta has to share the current love space on my happy watching shelf with Mon-Tues tvN drama This Life is Our First which is firing on all cylinders, and a funny similarity comes with both dramas have adorable pets (a cat in Life and a dog in Sleeping) to add an additional furry ready to watch.
Weii, wyws and mad dog were the only 2 dramas telecast at the usual time slot at 10pm. So thats how wyws got its rating, over mad dog!!
MBC delayed HS by one hour till 11pm cos of baseball game without even giving proper announcement. So take the idea tt wyws as the leader for tt time slot with a pinch of salt.
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Wyws was also the leader last week exept for the 2nd half of thursday’s episode. Was hospital ship delayed then too?
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Youve said it well. Wyws was not leading fully but the headline give the impression tt it has bin leading all the way and ‘remain’ to lead even from the 2nd part frm last wk (2nd part lead was Hs). By the way, ive said what ive said just to show tt there r only 2 dramas at 10 pm. Why so upset abt it?
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I was happy about Mad Dog’s increase until I saw this lol. Looks like it’s only because Hospital Ship was not airing.
On a side note, Avengers Social Club is killing it. Looks like it will be another success like Woman of Dignity.
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The new tvn weekday dramas are doing really well and getting positive comments too.
Buamdong and to a lesser extent This Life Is Our First came in with no hype and no Hallyu starcasting unlike BOTWG etc but still turned out great. Same with the recently ended Live Up To Your Name.
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Not only Avengers Social Club, but also jang Nara’s drama and Witch’s court ! Honestly it’s another kind of flop for ” big names “.
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Any body have heard what korean are saying about WYWS, I’m curious as what have been said there were high expectaction for this drama, for me a love it. Look forward to watch every week but truth to be told I like all 3 dramas and watching all 3.
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I watch WYWS only for Woo Tak, I’m so curious about him and his dreams. And he’s so cute (and clearly hot after the last episode :p)
For the ratings, I don’t really care. I prefer Hospital Ship but I wonder how they kept the lead with WYWS that is bigger production (famous actors, preproduced vs MBC and the strike, better marketing, famous writter, etc.)
I watched 2 episodes of Mad Dog and for now I really like it.
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I don’t know about anyone else but WYWS feels formulaic to me, like the writer is repeating elements from past hit dramas.
That is not a problem sometimes, even Pinocchio was not narratively great all the way to the end but the main leads’ chemistry and the hyung’s storyline really were big parts of it. Here I wonder if it would have felt more fresh with different leads.
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That said, I like Jung Hae In here. PHR does these ‘dark horse male wins viewer interest’ parts really well. First Yoon Kyun Sang in Pinocchio (which launched him into the public eye) and now this guy.
The cast seemed to mention they expected high ratings around 15-17 percent and even breaking 20 percent, so this is probably less than SBS wanted/expected from this casting (next time choose by looking at acting first instead of just blindly casting based on fame and star writers).
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It’s good to be optimistic, but the leads are never ratings magnets to begin with. The current ratings are about right.
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That’s funny because the #1 reason I hear for casting idols like Suzy who don’t really have acting talent, is that they bring high ratings. Now with UF and this, that’s not even true. It’s funny to see how Suzy keeps getting these dramas with star writers (LKH, PHR) who write roles down to her ability level and costars who are the trendy actors of today, and she’s still not getting those high ratings.
It could rise within the next weeks but I don’t think this drama is going to have even the same level of success/buzz as Pinocchio, forget I Hear Your Voice.
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I don’t think they cast idols for ratings. More like to bring in endorsers/ppls to fund the drama and sell the drama for a high price overseas.
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@teacakes, Pinocchio’s average ratings was only 10-11% so it wasn’t a massive ratings hit. It was just really popular with fans. Quality wise the second half was not on par with the first part. PHR drama concepts tend to be interesting initially and then it becomes too predictable.
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@Abc – I agree with you that the second half of Pinocchio wasn’t as good as the first half, it really lost a lot of momentum.
But like you said, it was very popular with fans and I didn’t see the kind of complaints about stagnating acting/plot in just week 4 that people are saying about wyws, if that makes sense.
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UF debuted with 12,5% (average 8,5-9,0% I believe), but then it lost the popularity because it turned out to be a hardcore melodrama about incurable disease in summer with unappealing to the targeted audience plot. I don’t know if it was good marketing or maybe Suzy/Kim Woo Bin combination itself attracted more attention, but that drama got proportional to it’s hype ratings (at first). I still believe, that LKH and director actully were a bigger nuance than Suzy’s acting. And the biggest crime UF waisted great chemistry and acting abilities of Kim Woo Bin, Jin Kyung, Im Joo Hwan and Yu Oh Sung. These people deserved a better script with better roles. Even though they still acted their asses off.
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Seems like TvN is doing good for the later half of the year. After LUTYN, there’s “This Life is Our First” and “Revolutionary Love” with both nearly hit 4% and ofc “Buamdong Social Revenge Club” almost reaching 6% by episode 3. Public TV station been meddling around lower teens but generally below 10%.
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They had so many misfires with high profile projects (Entourage, BOTWG, Criminal Minds), I guess they finally learned to go back to their roots and check for script quality instead of blindly throwing big names and hype around.
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TVN remains the only station now that can draw in the past glory stars who have all abandoned dramas for movies. Its wonderful to be able to see Kim Nam Gil, Yoo Ah In, Kim Ah Joong, Gong Yoo all back in the small screen. The big 3 are getting increasingly hopeless. Bad writers, poor casting, so tiresome. Its not even exciting anymore the bombs that are going into production. Jo Jung Seok Vs Heyri(!!?!), Kim Rae Won Vs Shin Se Kyung (??!!1?), Yoo Seung Ho Vs Chae Soo Bin (Again?!?!) …. Sigh
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Regarding WYWS – Jung Hae In is THE only spark left for me to keep watching it. Agree with the posters above, I really can’t stand Suzy’s one dimensional acting and LJS overworking to squeeze out the chemistry between them, the writing has been ok but I feel largely lethargic towards it thanks to suzy’s uninspiring acting. Trudging along as there’s nothing else I feel like watching at the moment but casting has been a let down increasingly with korean dramas lately. Its like they’re just going downhill. Other than TVN, OCN and JTBC, I’m kinda done with the main networks.
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Ah seriously his Life is Our First is so good. very relatable. both JSM and LMK are stable actorswho can keep drama soothing. rating is also decent despite of less hype and promotions.
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I love TLIOF soo much it is not only relatable but is such a gem! WYWS had all the buzz but the narrative seemed very thin. I don’t know how much more they can stretch the premonitions until it gets old.
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I am just gonna say at the SBS end of the year drama awards.In legal/thriller genre or even daesang…they better award Defendant and Whisper accordingly.Somehow, SBS aways forgets to award, its dramas that aired in the first half of the year.So am hoping This year’s daesang, they should not ignore Ji Sung.His last daesang at MBC was won because they were fan votes.If it were up to a judging panel, they would ignore him again like they usually do.If they are gonna award ratings and acting.The Daesang belongs to him.He is by far, the only actor whose drama had consistent solid ratings.Started at 14% ended at 28%.If we talk about acting, Lee Jong Suk is good but not anywhere near Ji Sung.
Whisper, also had consistent digits throughout its run.If they are gonna award Suzy over Lee Bo Young for top excellence actress..because of their drama’s popularity or whatever..its just gonna be sad.It will be a repeat of 2013 mess.Their acting(WYWS) is ok but not wow, so the only award, in my opinion this WYWS should receive is maybe Best Couple Award and popularity awards. PHR can get her well deserved Writer’s award for innovative sctipt as always if they have one.The supporting actors are really good.If male excellence award for genre drama goes to Lee Sang Yeob, Jung Hae Jin, or Uhm Ki Joon..il be ok with any of them.
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When we talk about dramas with so much hype before its premiere I can name WYWS and revolutionary love….
But, unexpectedly those with less promotions are so much better though, just my opinion.
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No., I live in Korea, and its very popular here. The problem is they lack promotion only international fans thinks that it was promoted well. Try to search korean site the company produces the drama rarely post article about the drama.
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Really? I was seeing articles on Naver about the drama, interviews with LJS etc from weeks before it premiered (still shows in the top 30 articles of those days), before airing they sent LJS to guest on Three Meals A Day (massively popular variety show) etc. That is publicity too.
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So are people mostly watching their dramas online these days?
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The erosion of ratings has happened everywhere. The # of people watching tv in the Friends era in the US has now been cut in half. Now the US ratings system has allowed them to calculate who is watching live, who is dvring and watching later and who is streaming on HULU. I don’t get a feeling that this is how it goes in Korea. I have wondered if youth dramas, which tend to get low ratings, are being monitored for streaming views which is how many now watch shows. Anyone know?
Regardless, just as the music and book world have been dramatically and forever changed by technology so too is television and now, more recently, the movie industry. So sure a megahit (DOTS) will happen occasionally and some 20% plus will pop up now and again but does anyone think that is ever going to be the norm again in k-dramaland even with solid dramas. No, it’s not.
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Already predicted this when they cast Suzy. She doesn’t bring in ratings and we already had two dramas and a movie to prove that hahaha
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Lol but that applies to both though.LJS is not a ratings magnet, nor a box office draw either.Its a tie there.Its just at least LJS is a good actor, and has an aptitude for picking good scripts.
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It’s sad that the highest rating drama could barely hit 10% these days with big name cast and writer too
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its gone back down too(WYWS) to 7.9% and 8.9% respectively in the latest episodes.Only a 0.8%, and a 0.2% difference with Hospital Ship.The first part of the year mainstream channel dramas and TVN for the second part of the year are the ones winning.
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I believe that it’s not only in Korea but across the world, TV ratings are dipping below expectations while remaining popular thru online medium. A lot of people are watching their dramas online such as myself and the market is saturated with more and more drama productions as well as rise in population plays factor in spreading the TV ratings thinner.
I am also watching WYWS and I was in love with the first 2 episodes, the setting, mood, directing and cinematics were so good. Somewhere down episode 4/5, it started to feel flat and uninteresting and I feel like it has a lot to do with the script not working any magic atm. LJS, Police guy, his brother and the aspiring Pianist are the only driving force moving this drama forward for me. LSJ character is a bit boring to watch (atm) but I feel that he did good for that it is. I hope this drama picks up pace. I am really not loving Suzy’s character after episode 2…
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