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This month, almost all of the remaining K-dramas that began airing during the Autumn to Winter Swing Season come to an end. Ergo, many Korean television stations are looking forward to airing their first K-dramas of 2017. Apparently, they are aiming to keep fans on the edge of their seats as most of the dramas to air first this year are suspenseful melodramas. Probably starting with the last K-drama of 2016, Solomon’s Perjury , on JTBC, we will be hit with other melodramatic dramas such as Voice , the K-drama that marks the return for the Orion Cinema Network (OCN) since 38 Task Force , and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) K-drama, Defendant .
Though the aforementioned K-dramas have their unique appeal and hook, the one everyone is looking forward to is Missing Nine . The melodramatic K-drama airing on the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) is already getting a lot of hype and promotion the closer we get to the conclusion of Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo. Now, MBC is really pushing Missing Nine despite the fact the light-hearted, coming-of-age, romantic comedy K-drama that is currently airing is not even done yet. They want to hook in viewers ahead of Missing Nine airing and they plan to do so by airing a special episode six days before the K-drama begins.
MBC made the announcement of the special episode on Monday, January 2, as reported by AllKpop . According to the public television company, Missing Nine will begin airing on Wednesday, January 18, but it will air a special episode six days in advance on Thursday, January 12. Take note the special episode technically has nothing to do with the story itself. Instead, it will be the actors introducing themselves to fans along with a behind-the-scenes look of the making of Missing Nine .
It is quite nice that MBC will be airing a first look special for Missing Nine , but it is possible the reason why such an episode is airing in the first place has to do with Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo . Originally, the K-drama currently airing on the day and time slot Missing Nine will occupy when it is finished was supposed to conclude on Thursday, January 5, with Missing Nine beginning on Wednesday, January 11. However, all the episodes of Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo , starting with the 14th episode, were pushed back due to the 2016 MBC Entertainment Awards. Ergo, the finale of Weightlifting Kim Bok Joo would air on the debut date for Missing Nine .
With Missing Nine being pushed back by one day, MBC had a couple of obvious choices on what to do about it. The first is to push the entire series back by one day on the given days and time they air. The second would be to air the debut episode and second episode back-to-back on the same day. Either way, both options could have potentially have issues. To be safe, MBC decided to push back the debut of Missing Nine by one week thus keeping the two episodes per week format intact. Also, the special episode might help build a following prior to the airing of the series. MBC wants Missing Nine to be very successful given the fact Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo was in last place for its days and time. To be fair, it had very opposing competition as it went one-on-one with The Legend of the Blue Sea , the last K-drama Lee Min Ho will star in before conscription (mandatory military service).
For those who want to know what Missing Nine , the MBC K-drama starring Jung Kyung Ho, Baek Jin Hee, Choi Tae Joon, and Lee Sun Bin, is all about, the synopsis of the story explains it as an unexpected plane crash that causes widespread panic across South Korea. Reason for said panic is because nine people have disappeared from it which includes some influential figures in the entertainment industry like Seo Joon Woo (Kyung Ho) who is an unsuccessful top star, Choi Tae Ho (Tae Joon) and Lee Yeol (Chanyeol) whom are members of the band Dreamers, and Ha Ji Ah (Sun Bin), the most successful celebrity under Legend Entertainment.
After the special episode airs, Missing Nine will make its debut on Wednesday, January 18, at 10 p.m. KST on MBC. After that, following episodes will air on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10 p.m. KST. For those who do not have access to Korean public channels, we know that it will air on DramaFever .
[Featured Image by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)]