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When it comes to K-dramas, it is evident that the Autumn to Winter Swing Season belongs to the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS). At this moment, the television company is airing two of the most popular K-dramas outside of the Total Variety Network (tvN) series Goblin , The Legend of the Blue Sea , and Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim . Both K-dramas are earning double-digit ratings in which certain episodes from each have surpassed 20 percent. For afternoon and evening K-dramas, this is extremely good for any Asian, not just Korean, television station.
Despite the fact both The Legend of the Blue Sea and Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim are dominating the competition, one will surely stand out more than the other. If we were to go by terms of viewership and popularity, Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim would win hands down. The medical series is consistently getting more than 20 percent in viewership from both AGB Nielsen Korea and TNmS Media Korea. The Legend of the Blue Sea , on the other hand, is starting to average around 14 to 16 percent depending on the ratings company.
However, Legend of the Blue Sea still gets more coverage and media hype than Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim . So the question that comes up is why Jun Ji Hyun and Lee Min Ho’s comeback K-drama is still getting more media attention than the latest successful medical K-drama, the second one this year?
The question presented above actually gives the two reasons why Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim is receiving less attention than The Legend of the Blue Sea despite its viewership ratings. The first reason is that The Legend of the Blue Sea is the K-drama comebacks of two of the more popular K-drama actors in the industry today, Jun Ji Hyun and Lee Min Ho. There is a ton of news on Lee Min Ho, especially celebrity gossip and tabloid stuff, here on the Inquisitr . As such, that should be more than enough to back his popularity.
As for Jun Ji Hyun, she hasn’t acted in a K-drama since her most popular series My Love From Another Star . Because of that K-drama, Ji Hyun is the second-most-influential K-drama star today behind Kim Soo Hyun. She goes beyond an actor or actress being linked to the most popular K-drama at the time (Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo during Descendants of the Sun , Park Bo Gum and Kim Yoo Jung during Moonlight Drawn by Clouds ).
Nevertheless, it is their names on The Legend of the Blue Sea that made the K-drama a marquee series in the first place. It would not have received as much attention as it did if more active K-drama actors worked in their place.
As for the second reason why Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim is getting less media attention than The Legend of the Blue Sea , it is the latest in a long line of successful medical K-dramas by SBS.
Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim , also known as Doctor Romantic and Romantic Doctor Kim , is the fourth medical K-drama aired by SBS. The first one was back in 2014 with Doctor Stranger starring Lee Jong Suk and Jin Se Yeon. At the time, it earned over 10 percent in viewership across the board for both the nation and the Seoul National Capital Area. One year later, Yong Pal starring Joo Won and Kim Tae Hee would release and would do even better, with viewership ratings averaging between 16 percent and 21 percent across the board for both the nation and the Seoul National Capital Area. Finally, this year we seen the most successful medical drama, Doctors or Doctor Crush , starring Kim Rae Won and Park Shin Hye, would do slightly better than Yong Pal .
Now we have Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim , which will most likely do better than Doctors , but it is a continued trend since 2013. It is now expected among K-drama fans that SBS medical dramas will be successful. It would take a major mistake by SBS to screw up the trend.
Ultimately, though, SBS is getting the full fruit of their labors as they enjoy success from both Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim and The Legend of the Blue Sea . And even though the former is doing better in viewership over the latter, they are both very entertaining K-dramas to watch.
Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim airs on Mondays and Tuesdays at 10 p.m. KST on SBS. For those who do not have access to Korean channels, it can be viewed on OnDemandKorea , DramaFever by one of its other titles, Doctor Romantic , and on Viki by the other title, Romantic Doctor Kim . As for The Legend of the Blue Sea , it airs on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10 p.m. KST on SBS. For those who do not have access to Korean channels, it can be viewed exclusively on Viki .
[Featured Image by Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS)]