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Drama viewership ratings for the week of Dec. 3-9, 2018

Happy December and happy almost-winter! Rom-coms are in the air, here to spread joy and love triangle related jealousy. On Monday, Dance Sports Girls premiered with low numbers, while Bad Detective (replacing Bad Papa, heh) premiered with a nice 7.1 percent.

For Wednesdays and Thursdays, An Empress’s Dignity takes the throne between the three major broadcasters. However, it’s got nothing on the atmospheric noona romance Boyfriend over on tvN. The drama’s ratings went down this week, but still came in with over 9 percent.

The other big drama this season, Memories of the Alhambra, is still going strong as well, but SKY Castle actually managed to come in higher. I’d say I’m surprised, but you just never know what the general public will prefer as their drama of choice.

Drama viewership ratings for the week of Dec. 3-9, 2018

Ep. # Station Rating
Monday, Dec. 3
Dance Sports Girls 1 KBS 2.7%
Dance Sports Girls 2 KBS 3.5%
Bad Detective 1 MBC 7.1%
Bad Detective 2 MBC 8.3%
Clean With Passion for Now 3 JTBC 3.5%
Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter 9 tvN 3.6%
Tuesday, Dec. 4
Dance Sports Girls 3 KBS 2.5%
Dance Sports Girls 4 KBS 2.9%
Bad Detective 3 MBC 8.6%
Bad Detective 4 MBC 10.6%
Clean With Passion for Now 4 JTBC 3.4%
Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter 10 tvN 3.9%
Wednesday, Dec. 5
Happy to Die 17 KBS 2.5%
Happy to Die 18 KBS 2.8%
Red Moon, Blue Sun 9 MBC 4.6%
Red Moon, Blue Sun 10 MBC 5.5%
An Empress’s Dignity 9 SBS 6.1%
An Empress’s Dignity 10 SBS 9.3%
Fluttering Alert 11 MBN 1.5%
God’s Quiz 5 7 OCN 2.1%
Boyfriend 3 tvN 9.3%
Thursday, Dec. 6
Happy to Die 19 KBS 2.1%
Happy to Die 20 KBS 2.7%
Red Moon, Blue Sun 11 MBC 5.0%
Red Moon, Blue Sun 12 MBC 6.0%
An Empress’s Dignity 11 SBS 7.9%
An Empress’s Dignity 12 SBS 10.5%
Fluttering Alert 12 MBN 1.5%
God’s Quiz 5 8 OCN 2.4%
Boyfriend 4 tvN 9.3%
Friday, Dec. 7
SKY Castle 5 JTBC 7.5%
Top Star Yoo Baek 4 tvN 2.8%
Saturday, Dec. 8
My Only Ally 49 KBS 26.2%
My Only Ally 50 KBS 30.8%
A Pledge to God 9 MBC 8.8%
A Pledge to God 10 MBC 9.7%
A Pledge to God 11 MBC 9.5%
A Pledge to God 12 MBC 10.1%
Fates and Furies 5 SBS 6.9%
Fates and Furies 6 SBS 9.0%
Fates and Furies 7 SBS 8.6%
Fates and Furies 8 SBS 9.3%
SKY Castle 6 JTBC 8.9%
Priest 5 OCN 1.9%
Memories of the Alhambra 3 tvN 7.0%
Sunday, Dec. 9
My Only Ally 51 KBS 31.3%
My Only Ally 52 KBS 36.1%
My Healing Love 33 MBC 8.9%
My Healing Love 34 MBC 11.2%
My Healing Love 35 MBC 10.3%
My Healing Love 36 MBC 11.4%
Priest 6 OCN 2.3%
Memories of the Alhambra 4 tvN 8.2%

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The ratings for moa seem to going down every episode despite the good reviews. And wow sky castle no one saw that coming.as for boyfriend the ratings are still strong despite some knetz criticism about the drama. And am happy for empress

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My mom dropped it because there is little romance between the leads. Me? I'm happy they are focusing more on the AR game. Its what makes the drama interesting.

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I'm assuming you commented this before the ratings for ep 4 were out...
Now it's like this
EP 1 - 7,5%
EP 2 - 7,3%
EP 3 - 7,0%
EP 4 - 8,2%

They were stable at first, and still pretty high anyway, now they are definitely going up...and, honestly, I can see them rising again next week! ^^
We'll see!

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Can I say, K-netz are rather unpredictable 😯

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Boyfriend doesn’t have a plot? I thought it was moving along at a good clip - different tastes, I guess.

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I watched sky castle after seeing good reviews and its high ratings. I was not dissapointed. The story is layered and compelling.

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Boyfriend has no plot? Sigh are we watching the same drama? It's a beautiful drama with a lot of meaning undeneath, guess not everyone catch that & just stereotyping them.

I love the writer of Alhambra since Nine, but I find Alhambra is boring, aside ofc their great CG & cinematography, there's nothing else capture my interest.

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MoA boring?

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

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Yes, it has too much fillers & unnecessary scenes that did not contributed anything to the plot, that's why.
toilet clogging scenes, wandering around hotels, city, toilet (again), unnecessary repetitive games etc..
The characters lacks depth & aside of those amazing CGI & cinematography (which aplaud shd be given to the director), I think it's the weakest drama ep of Nine & W drama writer ever wrote which is ashame because Nine is one of my all time fav.

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To each their own I think...I dropped MoA halfway thru first epi..The cinematography is great but for some reason I am not feeling it.

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you're forgetting how interesting the augmented world is clashing with the real world and the cool sword fights and all the possible rules in the universe amd why things happen the way they do...

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Sky Castle is my crack of the week. I started watching because of the awesome casts, stayed because of the fun!

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Sky Castle is that good.

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Other drama ratings:

Hymn of Death (SBS): 4.7%/5.6%(E03/04), 4.7%/6.2%(E05/06)
Dae Jang-geum is Watching (MBC) : 1.3%/1.2% (E17/E18)
Twelve Nights (Channel A): 0.3% (E09)
Coffee, Do me a Favor (Channel A): 0.3%(E04) / TBA (E05)

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If I had a clone I’d be watching all of these.

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MBC is stepping up their game with some good quality content drama. Happy for the high rating for Bad Detective's premiere and the increase in Children of Nobody / Red Moon, Blue Sun. Interested to see A Pledge To God.
Sad Bad Papa did badly in rating but nothing can be done about it.

No romcom is doing very well, maybe My Strange Hero will get good rating although it's not easy to compete with Bad Detective. But it might cause Just Dance to suffer more, sadly.

At this state, Sky Castle will reach 10%. Good drama with interesting premise, and this is not just ahjumma drama. I have seen many young viewers are enjoying this drama, maybe because it feels relatable. Actors' performance are very good too.

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I'm also surprised and happy that MBC dramas this cycle pull a very good number. And it keeps increasing too!
But I think overall, seems like more people are tuning in to watch dramas this cycle. The effect of holiday season getting closer?

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Probably yes.

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After seeing Bad Detective's ratings, I'm kinda sad Bad Papa didn't get a bit more love from viewers. I hope the cast didn't take it to heart. They all did a great job. T___T

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Agree. Maybe on the early episodes, Bad Papa didn't get to catch viewers' attention. Low rating surely will affect the casts and crews but I hope they know they did a great job.

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I'll drop encounter/boyfriend for now. I watched ep 3 a bit and cant maintain my focus 😅

I picked up sky castle. I like it. The acting is great, the story is gripping. For a drama with so many characters, no character feel left out. Great job scriptwriter 👍🏻

I'll continue watching MotA. I want to know the mechanisms behind the game. Hopefully it maintains exciting~

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Maintaining focus is a good way to refer to Boyfriend. I simply can't stay awake for it and think I'll have to drop it as well. Putting aside two hours for unplanned napping each week should not be in my schedule right now 😉

I wish Sky Castle and Top Star were easily available.

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what is so good about sky castle, guys? i had no interest before because i think it is a mainstream chaebol drama with different packaging, but seeing so many positive reviews, i tempted to watch it.

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It’s an addictive makjang. Too dramatic but it still makes you want to know more. I started yesterday and marathoned it till the latest episode because it was so addicting.

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It’s satirical so I think that’s partly why it’s so dramatic.

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<it’s an addictive makjang.

It is, but I would say not the usual makjang since it's not about romance, but parents pushing their kids to the extremes of academic success (the parents' success also is a topic).

It's also obviously dark satire – the families are chaebols and rich beyond belief, but the drama is very clearly saying 'These people are crazy! This not good!' And the new mom is a real voice of reason that you rarely see in dramas.

The setting is not one most of us live in, but I think Koreans can still recognise issues that are big in their society – academic and career pressure are real. Plus, there are some other pretty real bits (like the kid that ran off and the mom that found him as he was in his underwear, getting cozy with his girlfriend – no virginal pretense as dramas often presents).

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I have to agree on that it is not the usual weekend makjang. The dark humor are fun, and it is over the top, i mean, I have a friend from a family of doctors, from the father(a private hospital director), mother, 3 kids and even their spouses are doctors, and they are rich, but normal rich, not as filthy rich as shown in the drama. But it's a drama, it talks about interesting issues, directed in a fun way.

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I think they are not cheabol rich, they are very rich obviously but they can't just stop working and living off their money, that's why there is so much pressure on kids to do well and continue in parents steps.

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I don't think it's makjang at all. I can't think of a single makjang element that's been in it so far. As far as social commentary goes, it's pretty brutal. I usually think of satire as funnier (and I had to adjust my frame of reference after episode 1 because of that) but it is incisive, tightly written and extremely well-acted.

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All drama-viewers need to re-read JB's descriptions of makjang every month. It has begun to have a very very broad meaning among non-korean viewers.

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I might need some more direction from you on this. Is it because you think Sky Castle is makjang or that they've misunderstood what makjang is?

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No no my comment wasn't directed at you at all. Rather at the comment before you, and agreeing with you.

In the recent years I've seen more and more dramas being bashed on DB as having turned or being makjang. It seems to have become just a general derogatory adjective used whenever family relations turn a bit crazy. Which is not what I've learned through JB's careful explanations.

I must mention that I'm not Korean and I might be very wrong on this.

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Why can't I give a short answer! Yes, I meant that I think they have misunderstood what makjang is.

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Oh is ‘makjang’ considered a negative terminology? I never meant it that way. I thought it was more like: makjang= Extra dramatic . Makjang can definitely be entertaining because of the extreme way of showing exaggerated setups and characters. No wonder it sucks you in. I meant sky castle to be dramatic in a positive way as it keeps you engaged. Can someway direct me to dramabeans definition though. I would like to understand it better.

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For the short hand version, I think of makjang as 'soapy'. Like a soap opera. And like soap operas I often think that the plot is driven by big exaggerated conflict for the sake of conflict. While everything in Sky Castle is deliberate and tightly plotted.

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@Aania makjang is negative and usually associated with cheap, superficial, lazy writing for the unsophisticated viewers. I haven’t seen sky castle yet but I’ve rarely seen a JTBC drama labeled makjang.

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Something like desperate housewives but about rich kids education

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I’m watching memories of A ep4 now and my brain just exploded.
Spoiler Alert: I’m not sure why the ratings have dropped but the story is getting more intriguing and surely picking up - it must mean people came for a conventional romance but this isn’t any conventional drama... omg I can’t believe killed him ... twice.

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I haven't watched episode 4 yet, but up to episode 3, the AR part of the story was great, but there were also superfluous parts – PSH's character is distracting here. It added nothing to the first three episodes. I would blame her acting, but I actually think the writing of the character is the main culprit here.

I actually get the impression the female characters are accessories to the story – the pregnant wife, though her role is minimal, is the same. The main guy and his enemy (Cha) are people to whom only the game and winning matters, the women in their lives are just prizes (objects), not actual people – the final fight made that pretty clear. I feel the writer has sidelined the female characters in the same way. Maybe it's intentional and PSH's character will become more important, but I think even these opening episodes could have been written in a way where that character is neither just a plot device nor an archetype of the "poor, hardworking, naïve girl" but a real human being that matters in the story and that we can care about.

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PSH character is such a wallflower right now, that it hard for me to believe that she can play any important role, at most she will be "vehicle" for main lead to rebrand himself through "true love of one good girl".

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Should add that they should have just left out the romance of MoA entirely!

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Completely right. It kind of seems off pace when there is a hint at romance even if it looked like their chemistry could work in ep 4. This should have been a mystery/thriller all over. But yes a strong female lead or one with some value doesn't hurt, it would've been way better if she had a part to play maybe even as a gamer.

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One of the few times the ratings agree with my personal favorites (except for that crazy Empress thing).

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Now I'm so tempted to start Sky Castle!!

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Go for it! It is and interesting drama~

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Sky Castle is really good -- well-written, well-acted, interesting story. Totally deserves its high ratings.

Last Empress is a bucket full of crazy, but this writer really knows how to string viewers along. I always think she's going too fast and there's almost nothing left to happen, but then she throws another crazy thing in there. Also totally deserves its high ratings, imo.

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MotA is great but no idea if its increasing in ratings or decreasing perhaps. But I do understand why everyone may not be interested in it. It is keeping me intrigued for next week and I SHOULD'VE JUST BINGE WATCHED IT. Tbh Boyfriend has the same plot like every chaebol-candy dramas with roles reversed and chaebol being kinder but they somehow manage to keep the viewers engaged by having shorter scenes. I have always found SHG to be speaking in monotone so she bored me but she is surprisingly good her and emotes really well with her eyes.

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I hope SKY Castle beats Boyfriend's ratings.

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I think you mean MOA. Boyfriend and sky castle don't air on the same day.

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No, I mean beat Boyfriend's highest ratings of 10.329%.

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But they don't air on the same day nor do they have the same timeslot.

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But all cable dramas are ranked by their highest ratings. Encounter is currently #10, while SKY Castle is #14.

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Oh I so love MoA. But after reading tis post, I'm very tempted to start Sky Castle despite my long to-watch list in Netflix.

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Adding on to the positive comments about SKY Castle, it's not exactly makjang, but it certainly feels like reading the tabloids. There're certain secrets characters are hiding, schemes and plottings going around, but it's all good fun for us audience.
Yeom Jung Ah and the rest of the adult cast are so good, I don't mind this drama going on for more than 16 episodes. The kids are great too; I'm rooting for all those kids who actually dare stand up against their unreasonable parents and other adults.
The story is very relatable if you're familiar with the cutthroat Asian education system (although of course it's a tad exaggerated here in drama).

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SKYCastle is anything but mainstream. It’s immersive and deserves high ratings. For once over dramamatic approach is totally working for me.

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I'm glad "An Empress's dignity" and Boyfriend are having good ratings. Sad for Dancesport girls though, I'm seriously enjoying it. They deserve more

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