Despite their association with much-loved K-drama stars Lee Min Ho and Twinkling Watermelon‘s Ryeoun, recent releases When the Stars Gossip and Namib have failed to reel in viewership ratings greater than 2-3% on the domestic chart. The former show is especially struggling to lift itself up each week with a production budget reportedly amounting to 50 billion KRW (approx $34 million).
Contrary to their gloomy start in the New Year, SBS TV’s Love Scout (My Perfect Secretary) surfaced as an unexpected drama success starring Han Ji Min and Lee Joon Hyuk, winning audiences’ love across the board. The Friday-Saturday broadcast of the workplace romance saga has unlocked some or the other personal milestone each week since its January 3 premiere.
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Love Scout’s upward graph
Opening with an average nationwide viewership of 5.2%, the series has upped its game every week. On January 11, Love Scout scored its highest ratings yet, securing the 11.3% mark.
The latest Love Scout Episode 5 broadcast on January 17 maintained the streak by clinching its personal all-time high ratings to date for a Friday with a 10.7% score – even though these broadcasts typically tend to attain lower ratings than Saturday. With its new milestone, Lee Joon Hyuk and Han Ji Min’s show, harnessing the crowd-enticing qualities of reversed gender roles, was not only the most-watched across all channels in its time slot but also maintained that streak for the entire week among the viewer demographic of ages 20 to 49.
Ryeoun’s Namib: A big failure on the ratings scale
For a moment, one could attribute Namib’s failure (even after 8 episodes) to its broadcasts on a lesser-known channel like ENA with low accessibility. However, Your Honor (2024), led by actors Son Hyun Joo, Kim Myung Nim, Kim Do Hoon and Heo Nam Jun, broke that curse to some extent by concluding its 10-episode run on personal best ratings of 6.053% (nationwide) and 6.441% (Seoul) despite similarly beginning with its lowest ratings 1.736% (nationwide) and 1.9% (Seoul). It proved “if the work is good, people will still watch it.”
On the other hand, MBC’s Motel California, starring Na In Woo and Lee Se Young, witnessed its ratings peak so far on January 17, as Episode 3 earned an average nationwide rating of 5.2%.
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Some exceptions: Iron Family & The Tale of Lady Ok
KBS2 drama Iron Family’s long-running format helped maintain its double-digit ratings, unlike other shows. It’s truly an exception because its nationwide ratings for the September premiere already leapt off with a score of 14.1%, which is apparently its lowest rating yet.
Lee Joon Hyuk’s genre-switching move to romance in Love Scout ultimately cracked open double-digit ratings right after the first two episodes. On the other hand, Lim Ji Yeon’s The Tale of Lady Ok has also maintained a relatively better ratings streak. However, Check In Hanyang again settled with weekly scores ranging from 1.8% to 3%
High expectations tied to anticipated K-dramas of 2025
With all that said and done, despite the slow start, the year is only beginning. Several highly anticipated Korean dramas of 2025 like Yook Sung Jae and Bona starrer Return to the Palace (SBS), Park Hyung Sik’s Treasure Island (SBS), Mun Ka Young and Choi Hyun Wook’s My Dearest Nemesis on tvN, Namkoong Min and Jeon Yeo Been’s Our Movie (SBS), Kim Hye Yoon and Lomon’s I’m Human from Today (SBS) are just some titles that fans are counting on to work their magic with captivating storylines.
A lot riding on K-drama kings Park Bo Gum, Song Joong Ki, Lee Jong Suk and Byeon Woo Seok’s TV return
However, most of all, fans’ eyes are peeled for Song Joong Ki, Park Bo Gum, Lee Jong Suk, and IU and Byeon Woo Seok’s major K-drama comebacks.
Park Bo Gum’s JTBC series good boyset to premiere this year, features an ensemble cast that includes beloved actors like Kim So Hyun, Oh Jung Se, Lee Sang Yi, and Heo Sung Tae.
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Song Joong Ki, who struck out with two consecutive box office failures (Hawaran and Bogota), has always earned the audience’s favor with his dramas. In his first onscreen collaboration with Chun Woo Hee, Song’s My Youth will also air on JTBC in 2025.
Thereafter, Lee Jong Suk and Mun Ka Young’s team-up for tvN’s Seochodong already sounds like a big winner.
This brings us to MBC’s Wife of a 21st Century Princeboasting another drama pairing made in heaven: IU and Byeon Woo Seok. All are poised to occupy weekend TV timeslots, offering another chance for the much-needed K-drama fever revival as they generally attract more viewership than weekday slots.
