Oh man, it's already confirmed? :'( But I love this drama despite the low ratings. The current flow of the story has been going smoothly, if they were to ax it down, how bad could that be? :'(

Jang hyuk already finished filming his China project. The 2 weeks delay was cos psd has contract dispute regarding 2 dramas

Love the show so very much.... So disappointed that it will be cut. I prayed the quality won't be affected

Jang Hyuk had started early, PSD had scheduling conflict. Anyway, its sad and I am still mad at KBS. They have material for 16 while shows that don't have them run for 20 long episodes and end badly. World's unfair place.

Thank you for Javabeans for sharing in our sorrow that they are cutting the drama episodes. ?

I agree with you that many things could have been done better but I shall hope that since the writer was given some advance notice about the cut, maybe it won't affect the quality of the story too much. I'm glad only 2 episodes and not 4 were cut.

It has made all us fans appreciate the show much more and more vocal in expressing our love for BM on social media so hopefully the cast and crew and writer know that many people love the show, even if KBS doesn't.

Will definitely savour the last 4 episodes of the show- hope that the story will leave us all happy and satisfied.

And if it doesn't, then I'll just have to make a voodoo doll of KBS and start poking in some pins to help make me feel better.

This is shitty news. Boohoo to KBS. KBS is in the news for all the wrong reasons these days esp post DOTS. Soon the good production houses will stop pitching them their better shows if all this arm twisting continues

If they run the olympic special will it garner more than 4%? Does anyone know if these specials get decent ratings?

Extensions and cuts both harm the show. Maybe pre produced is better that way - once you are on air there is no possibility of tampering with the story

Feel so bad for the cast who are doing phenomenal work.

When it ends up on Dramabeans, you know its super duper official. Damn.

I seriously think this is one of those rare shows which could have done with a longer run, maybe even 20 episodes. The idea of only 4 more episodes is pretty damn painful.

Considering how much KBS seems to have been trying to cut it down from the beginning, I suppose I'm grateful I'm getting at all.

I respectfully disagree though,javabeans. KBS would keep shows running if they're rating wise successful like DOTS tbh. For shows like beautiful mind,I hope producers cautiously declare their shows 20-22 episodes longer,so given any talk about cutting,the show can safely end at 16 episode,sigh.
And for beautiful mind,yes..this show has more stories left to run for 6 more episodes,for sure..unlike some other dramas.

The fact that they're cutting the show by two episodes isn't so bad, but why so late in the game!
The writers have a greater capacity to write solid material if they know their own time constraints. Now they're forced to pursue last-minute efforts to hurry up and wrap everything together which almost never helps to serve the quality of the final outcome.

Gosh I love this show so much ! I can only hope that the last 4 episodes *teary eyes* are top notch quality like the rest of the drama so far. Fighting BM !!!!!

I was distracted by my despair and forgot to say this:

Thank you Javabeans for taking the time to write a post on this despite being in your post surgical haze!!

As a BM and Dramabeans fan I'm really very touched. ❤️

Please rest well and take care! Hope you recover well and super soon!

Oh man I was just about to pick it up tonight. Had the first 4 eps lined up and everything :/

Now I think I'm going to wait till it ends to see if the cut affected the story too much - I've been burned too many times by bad endings to risk loving a show I know now has the potential to derail at the finish line.

This is why i have no respect for major 3 networks they want generic romance heavy dramas that have no story, cliche second leads etc like Doctors. Cable channels like tvn, JTBC, OCN would respect a hailed drama despite low ratings.

Also blame many of Korean fans who give their ratings to every cliché drama hitting 15-20% because their bias is the lead. The fans also have something to do with the fact acclaimed shows get cut, the major networks cant grow in quality.....

Dear Javabeans,

I thought you just had a surgery. Why are you here? Like, WHY????? Go back to bed and stay there without a computer! Sleep! Lie down, bum.

Don't make me pull a YoungOh on you!

Love,
Peeps

(Damn, hate the cut though. It was getting really, really good.)

Ugh I hate KBS so much right now. While MNIKSS was my first kdrama, KBS actually fuelled the kdrama obsession for me when KBS World was made available here. I ended up watching a lot of KBS shows, esp the Mon-Tues shows. I thought these shows were fairly entertaining, until I found out later that they weren't exactly fetching high ratings. Nonetheless, KBS always had many underrated gems like I Remember You and Evasive Inquiry Agency.

However, I think recently KBS has let the 40% ratings they got into their heads. I remember reading that they wanted a DOTS Season 2 despite the writer saying no. And then they wanted Park Shin Yang to extend Neighbourhood Lawyer (although that's to give BM extra time, I think it's partly due to the fact that Neighbourhood Lawyer was pulling in the ratings KBS wanted)

Really disappointed with the decision KBS has made, more disappointed that they're using Olympics as an excuse. But I'm terribly disappointed that KBS wanted to cut BM much earlier at 12 episodes. Why does KBS only use the domestic ratings as a gauge? Can't they use their KBS World ratings as well to see the international response?

Probably going to avoid KBS dramas in a while now. (Wanted to wish that KBS would have nothing but flops from now on to get them to wake up, but that's being mean to people like Park Bo Gum and Kim Yoo Jung)

Why KBS didn't make the next seasons of DOTS to be aired everyday for five years?

Like you said JB, at the end...it's us fan who left as losers *sniff too*
I think this drama maybe not for most of SK viewer (rating-wise). But, it still have so much story and arc to be explored. The episode cutting seems very harsh, for everyone except the mighty execs at KBS.....booooo.....

this is soo disappointing, now they have to wrap everything up in 4 eps and have to change things. i loved watching this drama, i wish SK had things like netflix or something where shows like this could go.i agree that BM turned out to be those cult type drama's given the love it gets from K-netz. i wish this had gone to tvn or the other cable networks instead. i appreciate that the BM team stayed on course with the story they wanted to tell thus far without the rating worries affecting it. i hope there are still able to maintain the story and pace without it all crumbling cause of the 2 ep cut. *fingers crossed*. if only it got higher ratings now way would it be cut even with the Olympics. i feel bad for the cast and crew. one thing i hope though is that jang hyuk could win something for his role, because holy damn he is a brilliant actor

It's kind of sad how there are times when quality dramas are put aside just because of the ratings game :| I know it's the harsh reality of the entertainment world but then it would be nice if stations produce dramas not to win the "game" but to produce top-notch shows that the audience would appreciate. But then that's just me being idealistic. :(

In all honesty, I think TVN has been gaining some kind of recognition these days because they continuously release quality shows.

Alas, I just hope Beautiful Mind still receive the great ending it deserves. Everyone has been amazing but Jang Hyuk is just phenomenal. :)

This is a pity. I pick up on this drama a little bit too late, but once I started... I binge watched the entire 8 episodes. This is how compelling this drama is... Well... we'll have a nice run...

So sad a drama like this is getting cut while awful dramas get 20+ episodes.

Thank you JB for making it official for us. I am so sad. I think KBS could have made adjustments. Like maybe airing two episodes back to back so that we could still have the full planned episodes. I understand what you said about the messy start though. Maybe there wouldnt even be enough time to film if they were to do that. Maybe they were waiting it out and then it just didn't work out. As this late of a notice is really really s----y!

Oh well, as others have said, we will treasure every seconds left of this show! Even if things get all wacky because of the cut, love til the end, fighting staff and crew!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
SO MAAAD RIGHT NOW.

IT COULD HAVE BEEN AN AMAZING DRAMA.

I believe now that everything is going to be rushed and Young-Oh will be miraculously cured.

People expected to see what they want to see on a drama from the beggining and then they will decide if its good.
A lot of sites announced that BM will have romance (I read some synopsys like: "Neurosurgeon with zero simpathy falls in love and gains his humanity.")
But Beautiful Mind started really weird with the two leads not having much of a chemistry, the guy stabbing the girl on the first episode and this same girl doing pretty stupids things as a cop that made us want her out of the show.
Then what happened was that most of the people dropped the drama and didnt wait to see it develop.
I'm not saying that I wanted them to fall in love on the first episodes, but I wanted to see that a romance was possible there. Do you guys were seeing it comming? I didn't.

Romance sells guys, if people had bought the romance on this drama from the start they wouldnt have given up on this.
The difficult medical language and the realistic surgery procedures could also explain the low ratings. Medical dramas are not that famous unless you put together famous actors and a lot of romance on it like the drama Doctors (I'm not watching because I can't handle Park Shin Hye)

I was glad I didn't give up and now I'm sad that they are going to cut down the episodes.

I always say this on my comments: Excuse my English, it's not my first language.

KBS has no respect for fan and for crew ,what did they do with all of money they earned from DOTS ....?! so disappointed

So upset...
This drama is above up thete in terms of quality even compared to the zero plot Doctors(i only love the casts)

I was surprised by the decision because from what I notice from last year.. they don't usually shorten drama even if it's low rating. I rather they give the show a break for the olympics then resume. I just don't think this drama needs to be shorten.