Drama viewership ratings for the week of Nov. 1-7, 2021
by SailorJumun
This week’s chart is looking lighter than usual, but the coming premiere wave is sure to fix that. For now, we just got one premiere — fantasy thriller Happiness. The drama came in with a decent 3.3 percent and managed to stay steady going into the next day.
Meanwhile, The King’s Affection made a nice jump to 7.6 percent, its highest rating so far. (Once Inspector Joy joins this slot next week, it’ll be interesting to see how the two sageuks compare.) We then had the finales for High Class and One the Woman, both ending with strong numbers.
Drama viewership ratings for the week of Nov. 1-7, 2021
| Ep. # | Station | Rating | |
| Monday, Nov. 1 | |||
| The King’s Affection | 7 | KBS | 7.0% |
| High Class | 16 | tvN | 5.7% |
| Tuesday, Nov. 2 | |||
| The King’s Affection | 8 | KBS | 7.6% |
| Wednesday, Nov. 3 | |||
| Dal-li and Gamjatang | 13 | KBS | 5.1% |
| Reflection of You | 7 | JTBC | 2.2% |
| Thursday, Nov. 4 | |||
| Dal-li and Gamjatang | 14 | KBS | 5.0% |
| Reflection of You | 8 | JTBC | 2.3% |
| Friday, Nov. 5 | |||
| One the Woman | 15 | SBS | 16.7% |
| Happiness | 1 | tvN | 3.3% |
| Saturday, Nov. 6 | |||
| Young Lady and Gentleman | 13 | KBS | 27.8% |
| One the Woman | 16 | SBS | 17.8% |
| Inspector Koo | 3 | JTBC | 2.0% |
| Chimera | 3 | OCN | 0.9% |
| Happiness | 2 | tvN | 3.2% |
| Jirisan | 5 | tvN | 8.0% |
| Sunday, Nov. 7 | |||
| Young Lady and Gentleman | 14 | KBS | 30.5% |
| Inspector Koo | 4 | JTBC | 2.7% |
| Chimera | 4 | OCN | 1.1% |
| Jirisan | 6 | tvN | 8.9% |
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Tags: drama ratings
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1 cat-cric-kat
November 7, 2021 at 6:51 AM
Happiness would have made you happy without the abuse of nonsensical trope. New dramas haven't driven ratings much. Maybe everyone has already started to clean the table and move on to 2022.
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2 panshel
November 7, 2021 at 7:21 AM
SBS is owning this Fridays and Saturdays slot from Penthouse 2 29.2% to Taxi Driver 16.0% to One the Woman 17.8%.
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Yu
November 7, 2021 at 9:12 AM
SBS is owning all the time slots. Only SBS and TVN have had consistent ratings for the last 2 years.
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Ayalynn
November 7, 2021 at 5:53 PM
Comment was deleted
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Ayalynn
November 7, 2021 at 5:53 PM
I wonder if Now, We Are Breaking Up (romance genre) is going to do well on Fri/Sat.
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3 mmmmm
November 7, 2021 at 7:23 AM
Aww.. is that the power of Honey Lee?
I wish the ratings of Darli and Gamjatang were higher...
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alasecond
November 7, 2021 at 7:26 AM
more like power of makjang..
when has makjang not gained trps in korea
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laurawaterhouse
November 8, 2021 at 6:24 AM
if one the woman is considered makjang, then the plot of dali could be considrered as more makjang. both are using old tropes but executed in a fun way.
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alasecond
November 8, 2021 at 6:33 AM
dali i snot makjang..
makjang is not old tropes.. its a genre in itself.. like penthouse, most of the weekend dramas... one woman is end to end makjang
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laurawaterhouse
November 8, 2021 at 7:24 AM
there are hardly any dramatic scenes in one the woman though, it is just in sbs so it is looked down. if it's in tvn, people would be raving about it
soulsearch12
November 8, 2021 at 6:31 PM
@laurawaterhouse This is an interesting point you bring up! Ngl, looking at the rom-com dramas this year or past year, KBS has had better rom-com dramas with better kiss scenes lol than tvN did recently lol. Like Into the Ring/Dali and Gamjatang. But b/c its on KBS, not tvN/JTBC, people are more or less eh.
SBS loves their makjang/re-hashing of tropes, but w/ flashier budget/big name stars. Every year or so, they've one or two shows that are solid like Hyena/Hot Stove League, or even Taxi Driver. But overall tvN has the most variety/more lax on certain things, which gives them a bit more freedom?!
OldLawyer
November 7, 2021 at 8:57 AM
So do I but in fact these ratings are not bad.
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bong-soo
November 7, 2021 at 3:56 PM
By episode 3 D&G found its audience and that audience has stayed with it. It will probably average out with a Nationwide Nielsen rating of about 5%.
Here are D&G’s weekly ratings:
https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Dali_and_Cocky_Prince/Episode_Ratings
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mmmmm
November 8, 2021 at 6:40 AM
Thank you!
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soulsearch12
November 8, 2021 at 6:24 PM
Considering how Into the Ring fared, I think Dali and Gamtang is doing a bit better. Someone said that 5% now a days on Public TV is now the average rating (esp. since this is airing Wed/Thur). So, it could be much better, but not horrible given KBS's ratings thus far. Strangely, a show that got no fanfare Royal Secret Agent (Mon/Tue) did amazingly well for KBS, it got over 14% for its finale!
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Maya
November 9, 2021 at 2:00 AM
KBS had 2 solid high ratings dramas this year both sageuk. Royal Secret Agent and River Where The Moon Rises. It also had the critically acclaimed Youth Of May but without the high ratings. At the same time it had 2 of the lowest rated dramas this year. Imitation and Seen From A Distance Spring. KBS dramas aren't flashy like TVN or heavily reliant on big named celebs like SBS so they tend to go unnoticed by the audience both domestic and international. However KBS is channel that put out the most number of dramas this year especially for public tv. Their award ceremony is going to be a long one. They've had everything from dailies, prime time mini and mid length series to weekenders. I don't know how they pull it off but then again their dramas don't have the big budgets TVN and SBS does.
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soulsearch12
November 9, 2021 at 12:23 PM
MBC put a lot of faith/$$ onto The Veil. They barely had much dramas. KBS does a bit of both, I think like MBC they don't go for big name stars. Altho MBC this year is trying to up their ratings again by hiring big names again. Plus KBS/MBC are tax payer paid works, while SBS is privately owned. Plus SBS has Studio S, which is their own studio which helps a lot. Last year b/c KBS dramas minus their weekenders, did dismal in ratings. So it was nice seeing underrated gems that would get forgotten about some needed attention. tvN is owned by CJ&E which is a major conglomerate , they monopolized everything which is dangerous. OTT seems to be the future, so I expect if any new actors/rising stars want to pop off, that seems to be the best pick.
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Maya
November 9, 2021 at 6:58 PM
Same I agree it's nice to see KBS pick up young stars some popular some rising to lead their dramas. They've also had some very interesting female centric dramas like River Where The Moon Rises, Sell Your Haunted House and The Kings Affection. They also do screwball romcom the best like Dali and Gamjatang. Overall I think KBS had the best female characters this year and some of the best couples. It's a good thing they hand out multiple best couple awards because it'll be a difficult category to award. KBS has an in-house production studio called Monster Union which might be better than Studio S if you compare their works. Last year KBS had good weekenders but this year I didn't like their weekenders but as always they pull in the highest ratings for the channel. TVN again agreed has a massive conglomerate backing it up plus Netflix seems to be hand in hand with TVN. They rarely buy dramas from public channels so the exposure for KBS and MBC dramas on an international level is low. OTT is definitely the future but the Netflix format might be better than the Apple TV+ format with their once a week release. New stars can still pop off on TV but OTT will get a bigger audience internationally.
soulsearch12
November 10, 2021 at 9:12 PM
@Maya Great comment! There was a time when idol actors would get cast in KBS shows a lot. A) They're cheaper than big stars B) Already has recognition/fanbase. Although lately, it has been nice seeing fresh acting talents get lead roles. A lot of our big stars started out that way, altho competition has increased hugely since the 2000s.
KBS had a bad year ratings wise last year. But this year, they been doing slightly better. Only SBS out of the public channels has given tvN some chase. The rest are stuck in the 3-5% range. That being said, these dramas seem relatively cheap so it should be ok. Didn't know KBS also had their own in house production too, that's smart.
As for KBS/MBC/SBS not putting their works on Netflix, is b/c they have Wavve their own Korean Netflix which is in competition with. Thus, it's only on Kocowa which doesn't seem to get that much traction internationally. Like One the Woman, if this was tvN or on Netflix, it would've popped off better.
TV Hits like One the Woman has shown is that sometimes the least expected does really well. Even Penthouse got close to 30% ratings which is crazy/hard!! So there's always one or two outliers that come in and surprise. But majority speaking, most of the edgy/risk taking works will be on OTT in the future. Whereas, the trope filled ones that acquire a particular audience (makjang/weekender) will still have an audience (Korea's aging population), but it's not going to garner them the critical acclaim they want. I think Netflix is going to win a lot of awards come Baeksang time.
lackingfive
November 9, 2021 at 5:49 PM
what i like about kbs this year is they used so many rising stars and fresh faces to start their dramas on public channel...it's so nice to see that..can't believe i watched many kbs dramas this year, last year there wasn't interesting kbs drama..i'm looking forward for their award ceremony the most, youth of may probably will get best drama
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Maya
November 9, 2021 at 7:07 PM
Youth of May is the strongest contender for best drama I'm not sure any if other drama will qualify for the category. Secret Royal Inspector is the highest rated drama for KBS this year but I wonder what awards they'll actually win. The Daesang for this year will most likely go to either Jang Nara or Kim So Hyun but since KBS has a habit of handing out multiple winners it could go to both. The best new actor and actress categories will be the most competitive for KBS.
lackingfive
November 9, 2021 at 5:44 PM
dali and gamjatang ratings are really good! they're so consistent and considered that the main leads are not big yet..but i do wish they got higher than police uni ratings sometimes
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4 Kurama
November 7, 2021 at 8:13 AM
TVN has 2 dramas on Saturdays but none the Wednesday-Thursday? It's weird.
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Ayalynn
November 7, 2021 at 5:45 PM
Melancholia was supposed to start on 11/3 but it got pushed back to 11/10 due to the COVID-19 positive case.
So there was no Wed-Thurs drama just this week.
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Kurama
November 7, 2021 at 9:50 PM
Oh yeah, I forgot about it. TVN are pretty busy :p
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5 Yu
November 7, 2021 at 9:10 AM
What happened to JTBC? They haven't pulled in any substantial ratings since May 2020.
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kiara
November 7, 2021 at 10:19 AM
JTBC has been my go-to channel since launch. I'm not sure what is up this year between their shows and the viewers.
I'm looking forward to writer Park Yeon-Sun's "FLYING BUTTERFLIES," but her shows are not for the ratings.
Hopefully, SNOWDROP will do it.
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Yu
November 7, 2021 at 6:00 PM
There's a rumor that JTBC dropped that drama. It finished filming in June but still doesn't have a time slot. Dramas that just started filming already have confirmed time slots.
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kiara
November 7, 2021 at 7:27 PM
That makes me sad. 😟
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mmmmm
November 8, 2021 at 7:14 AM
Can a channel drop a drama that has finished its filming? I'm curious as to where will these dramas go?
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Yu
November 8, 2021 at 9:46 AM
IDK if anyone remembers but KBS dropped a drama called Mojito some years ago. They finished filming in 2017-18 but it hasn't yet released.
mmmmm
November 8, 2021 at 10:10 AM
Aww.. that's sad.
soulsearch12
November 8, 2021 at 5:54 PM
This article has several examples of shows that got issues during filming.
https://www.kdramastars.com/articles/118403/20200714/5-korean-dramas-forced-stop-filming-due-unforeseen-issues.htm
Chimera was originally suppose to be on MBC. But filming got halted due to a writer's #metoo scandal. MBC dropped the show after a few yrs (2018/19), and OCN finally picked it up several yrs later.
So I Married the Anti-fan was suppose to air on Public channel, and was filmed ready to air. However, it was waiting until finally it got picked up by an OTT channel. If the network drops a drama before it airs, they sell their rights to whatever platform it is. Usually it sits waiting until finally some channel or service picks it up, or it gets thrown away to falter. Park Hae Jin/Nana's drama went through SBS dropping the show a few episodes in shooting, and never picked up again, until some OTT channel did this year.
miss h
November 8, 2021 at 8:59 AM
Weird. They spent like nine months filming it.
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kiara
November 8, 2021 at 9:31 AM
Produced and distributed by JTBC Studios also. Pretty weird.
Yu
November 8, 2021 at 9:44 AM
They might sell it to an OTT platform. It is weird nobody has a clue why its happening.
6 kellie
November 7, 2021 at 12:39 PM
One the Woman got to almost 18%?!? With that nothing script? Credit must go where it must go -- to the redoubtable Honey Lee.
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soulsearch12
November 8, 2021 at 6:01 PM
Honestly it surprises me but also not, that the same o' stuff gets a lot of love in Korea. Even with the explosion of OTT, and better scripts/more variety out there, people still love the ways of the past. For this case (One the Woman), it aired in a very successful time slot that has done wonders for SBS, the comedy factor compared to The Veil (their main competition that in the 1st week, took away their show's ratings a bit), and Lee Honey in a role like The Fiery Priest (comedic/sassy) that people loved her in. All of that together, plus an easy going script equals success.
When I heard Kim Ah Joong was suppose to be the FL when this was first announced, I wasn't into the storyline. It sounded silly, however when Lee Honey ended up doing this show. I knew Kim Ah Joong made a big mistake, because this would pop and well it did. Kim Ah Joong has gumption, this and Oh Hae Young, she turns down/or has a bad eye for success, but hey if its her choice then...
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laurawaterhouse
November 9, 2021 at 5:40 AM
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laurawaterhouse
November 9, 2021 at 5:49 AM
OTT released a plot summary that seemed overly rehashed so it did not look interesting, but the execution was well done. I thought it premiered with really good shows that week and I watched all 4 of them. the other 3 had higher goals and had started really good but OTT was just consistent and did not get lost in its narrative, never got too heavy, had few plot twists but a lot of directorial twists (reminded me of my unfamiliar familiy) and was in a way cathartic release week after week as the protagonist always wins, so it kept it's audience.
kim ah joong may actually be right at passing up on those projects as they may not have done so well if she did them. oh hae young and cho yeon joo needed to be acted without reservation, while kim ah joong has softness and finesse which may have hindered that??
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soulsearch12
November 9, 2021 at 12:29 PM
OTT? OTW right lol? Yeah, it was just what people wanted, something light/funny. Also, I read that Korea has a fast aging population so many who do watch public TV prefer makjangs/same o' stuff. I suspect the hottest dramas that garner a lot of press/attention will be coming outside KBS/MBC/SBS in the future.
I think Kim Ah Joong since 200 Pounds has seldom done much comedic work. I think its also flashy slapstick might not be her jam? Also, most actresses wouldn't dare to look 'ugly' on-screen, pulling grimaces like Lee Honey does. It's a shame b/c Kim Ah Joong is talented and can do comedy, but she has a bad eye for works. Both dramas/roles were female fronted too. But judging by how she picked Grid (Stranger writer), I guess she wants to showcase new sides to her.
OTW had the benefit of being in a very popular time slot for SBS. Lee Honey in comedy roles are magic. I read an article that said that no one in the industry thought this show or her would succeed. They looked down on the show/Lee Honey, but in the end it over performed. She's a late bloomer in terms of garnering acclaim/FL's, but an ex. of slow and steady wins the race.
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7 bong-soo
November 7, 2021 at 4:25 PM
The battle of the sageuks begins.
For the next four week KBS’s THE KING’s AFFECTION and tvN’s SECRET INSPECTOR ROYAL JOY will both air together on M/T. According to AsianWiki TKA airs at 21:30 and SIRJ airs at 22:30. I checked with Netflix and TKA’s episodes generally run a little longer than one hour.
Will die hard sageuk fans go from one to the other? I am not currently watching TKA but will be watching SIRJ. Are there many folks like me that passed on one but will jump on the other? We will soon find out.
Then later in the week MBC’s RED SLEEVE CUFF will air F/S at 22:00. This may impact HAPPINESS (although not a sageuk) since HAPPINESS airs at 22:40.
I will be watching both. I enjoyed episode one of HAPPINESS.
It is going to be a busy end of the season for me.
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8 lackingfive
November 9, 2021 at 5:38 PM
High Class is higher than expected..i didn't follow this drama..but for that slot even park boyoung and seo hyunjin dramas didn't hit 5%
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welh
November 10, 2021 at 8:19 AM
It had pretty consistent ratings for its entire run. Jo Yeo Jeong has a good ratings track record.
It is hard to keep momentum when one show is preempted and your finale is orphaned to the next week. Usually, show runners like to pair episodes 15 and 16 together.
Ironically, episode 16 was more a long epilogue than a true finale.
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