Deal loses Yoo Yeon-seok, in danger of losing timeslot too

by girlfriday

I don’t know which bad news came first or if it’s all jumbled in a chicken-egg scenario behind the scenes, but the new SBS melodrama Deal might not be happening anymore. News came out that SBS was reconsidering its timeslot — that’d be Wednesdays and Thursdays after Entertainer — and not long after that, news broke that leading star Yoo Yeon-seok turned down the offer to headline. Is it mean to point out the irony of a drama named Deal losing all its deals?

According to SBS, they’re still in talks over the mid-June timeslot and insist that it could still go to Deal… It’s just that now it also might not, because they’re considering green-lighting a different drama instead. Yoo Yeon-seok’s reps, meanwhile, say that he’s already looking at other projects.

The new drama from writer Choi Ho-chul of Mask and Secret is being called the male version of Mask, a revenge story of a poor man who enters a chaebol family in order to avenge the death of his beloved sibling. Now it’s being described as a story about the death of one weak person, the four men and women surrounding that death, and their love, betrayal, revenge, and ambition. So… like Mask.

PD Park Yong-soon (Divorce Lawyer in Love, 49 Days) is attached to the project now, but without a leading cast, it’s not going to get back on SBS’s schedule anytime soon. Part of me wonders if SBS blew all their money getting hot potato rom-com Jealousy Incarnate and forgot they had a June drama to air before their August drama.

I’m not too heartbroken over Yoo Yeon-seok turning the project down, though it would’ve been nice to see him back in dramaland in June. I’ll just have to cross my fingers that some of the other projects he’s considering will bring him back to television this year.

Deal may still follow Entertainer and premiere June 15. Or maybe not.

Via Sports Chosun, DongA

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