Road No. 1 premiered this week, and despite all the fanfare over its cast and 13 billion won budget, the first two episodes brought in a 9.2% and 9.1%, respectively. Not horrible numbers, but lower than hoped, certainly. Especially considering that competitor drama Baker King Kim Tak-gu on KBS climbed even higher with a 27.1% and 31.1%.
SBS, meanwhile, postponed Bad Guy once again to air World Cup games, and the highlights program and the Slovakia-Italy game recorded respective numbers of 7.3% and 11.4%.
Normally I wouldn’t say that Road‘s numbers are such a bad thing for an epic drama, as those sprawling blockbuster series usually take a little time to build and tend to increase later on. (See: East of Eden, Giant.) However, note that Road No. 1 is a 16-episode miniseries, and as it has already completed 100% of its filming, the possibility of an extension is not on the table.
This is also interesting because next week Bad Guy will resume, and before its repeated pre-emptions, it was pulling in 13%-15% numbers. It remains to be seen how much it will cut into the other two competitors — or if its constant delays will have taken the zip out of people’s interest. Some disgruntled and vocal viewers have complained that SBS is making it particularly difficult to watch Bad Guy, so the broadcaster responded by scheduling a “special broadcast” of Bad Guy this weekend. On the 27th, they will air a two-hour program that reviews the plot of the first five episodes, in time for Episode 6 to resume on June 30.
Via E Daily
RELATED POSTS
- Without competition, Baker King shoots up in ratings
- Road No. 1 wraps filming
- Baker King premieres in top spot
- World Cup pre-empts SBS’s prime-time scheduling
Tags: Bad Guy, Baker King Kim Tak-gu, drama ratings, Road No. 1
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KBS must be glad that SBS did their WC thing because it cleared the way for Baker King to find a large audience that might stick with it the whole way.
I wonder what SBS’s dramas will look like next week.
Yes the cast is fabulous, but wasnt expecting the war story plot to draw in big numbers. After all there is no mystery to the plot. And how many people will want to go home to watch people killing each other in a war zone after a hard day of work?
Poor bad guy, I am beginning to think that Han Ga In is jinx. But good that SBS is doing a summary and hopefully the show will catch up later, because there is some mystery, a cliffhanger there. So there is some reason to continue watching.
That hand on Kim Ha Neul’s head is really bugging me!
I think it has something to do with who the viewership population is. Generally speaking, I would think mostly men would be interested in a war drama. Maybe they’re still working when it airs, don’t watch TV as much as women, etc.
Even though I had heard “Saving Private Ryan” was an excellent movie when it came out, I just was never in the mood to watch a war movie. (Eventually, I ended up renting the DVD and watching at home but that was a long time later.)
Not a gd rating for a 13 billion budget.
It’s like $$$ going down the drain
Will dramabeans be writing episode caps for Road #1? I’m actually interested to hear what you think of it!
Anyway, I look forward into watching it. I hope there’s plenty of romance in this war epic. hahah
Give it time and maybe the ratings will go higher overtime or atleast let’s hope so!
I don’t think it helps that you can find out how the series ended before it even began. I bet a lot of people don’t really see the point if they already know all the details. I love spoilers as much as the next person, but sometimes they don’t do anyone any good.
Does anyone know where The Baker King can be watched with English subtitles now that Viikii is not airing anymore episodes?
Drama , movies like private Brian , blood diamond are always meaningful , worth to watch . I personally like this kind of drama , especially SJS in it . I ask all my friends
living here in Canada ,all of them will watch Road number one , we like drama
which enrich our knowledges regarding K war .
oh wow. baker king is up there now. higher ratings than Cinderella’s Sister.
I agree that Baker King had a good two weeks to find and keep audiences.
i can’t help but feel bad for Road No 1 but i hope they have a lot more to offer since the adulthood in Baker King is soon here.
Grrreat, now I can’t stop looking at the hand on her head.
I’m loving Baker King btw.
I’m still a “Bad Guy” fan, I’m sure the ratings drought is the responsibility of the world cup…but its been going strong so I’m sure it’ll have a good contendency ones it resumes.
sjs is one of my favorite actors but i am still suffering the pangs of dissapointment from watching cain and abel (sooo much wasted potental), and i have very little desire to see this drama.
i watch the news (the real news not the mainstream propaganda on american stations) and usually get my fill of war, death and mans inhumanity to man. its bad enough whats happening in the world right now, i find it hard to force myself to sit down and watch a war drama at this particular place and time.
its hard to sit there watch, look learned and intellectual and say “look how much we’ve learned since then” when we(humans in general) are still doing the same terrible things for the same underhanded reasons that we have done through out history and often for the exact same reasons.
maybe this wasn’t the best time to come out with a war drama.
right now, i just want something to make me laugh.
and yes, now that you guys have pointed it out, the hand on the head is…distracting.
Actually, it’s been announced that Road No. 1 will be 20 episodes, not 16 as originally reported. They extended it while filming because they apparently had too much story to cram into 16 episodes. (Whatever that means.)
“Road No. 1 premiered this week, and despite all the fanfare over its cast and 13 billion won budget, the first two episodes brought in a 9.2% and 9.1%, respectively. Not horrible numbers, but lower than hoped, certainly. ”
No way! Getting a 9% rating for a High-budgetted Drama and is Being beaten by a low-budgeted Series [Or should I say,A series from KBS2] is Definitely a horrible thing!
I’s so glad that some viewers are voicing their disgruntlement for postponements of BG. To me it’s very frustrating and I’m eager to watch the next episodes of BG. SBS better not postpone it again on the 30 june. All the best to BG!
I have heard the reviews for the first epi and they are pretty bad they say it looked like an episode of winter sonata it is just another korean melodrama do not expect anything great
I guess it’s bad timing.. with the current tense situation and a possible conflict with North Korea lurking at their doorsteps, people might just want to watch something which doesn’t remind them about what possible carnage might hit them…
a war time winter sonata! uuuuggggggggghhhh, definitely gonna steer clear of this one.
I think the drama/war gets on some Koreans’ nerve with recent incident with
N. Korea etc.
Story wise, MBC already gave out too much details so there are few surprises in the
plots, but I still think this is a very different sort of drama which (hopefully) telling
how the war changes relationships while trying to survive..
Actors like So Ji Sub were drawn to this drama because of the challenge, the not-
your-ordinary kdrama story. As his fan, I applaud his choice. Besides, good ratings
do not mean good dramas. Just hope MBC will not bypass this drama at year end
award time…..
Hmmm, this is rather curious. Do Koreans usually enjoy war epics? How have similar dramas performed in the past? I know they seem to enjoy the War movies, but how about the dramas? War dramas are not of interest to me, so when I read that they were spending so much money on this drama I assumed it was because dramas such as these with the added benefit of a formidable cast performed well. Can’t wait to see what happens:)
I love So Ji Sup but he’s under tough competition right now. Baker King has been at the top and for good reasons too. The child actors are unbearably adorable and the storyline is cute and exciting! I’m a huge fan of Bad Guy but I think they’ve been gone too long and because Baker King was at its beginning, they might’ve switched over to that show now. I don’t think a rating is a huge importance but I know that it is a big deal in Korea. I just hope that Bad Guy isn’t at the bottom of this rating chain although I wouldn’t be surprised if they were now.
@T KBS1′s Comrades enjoys High Ratings on Weekends,My friends are telling me that Comrades is Much better that Road No.1
20 episodes? Interesting.
Bad Guy forever!!