‘Good Manager' gains more ground, ‘Saimdang' rebounds
SEOUL: KBS 2TV’s ‘Good Manager’ has furthered its lead in the Wednesday-Thursday late night drama race, while ‘Saimdang, Memoir of Colors’ managed to recoup losses, data showed Friday.
According to Nielsen Korea, Thursday’s episode five of ‘Good Manager’ recorded 16.7 per cent nationwide viewership, up 1.2 percentage points from a day ago.
The satirical comedy series stars Nam Gung-min as Kim Sung-ryong, an accountant at the fictional TQ Group and a genius at misappropriating corporate funds for personal use. He inadvertently ends up fighting against greater corruption within the workplace to save the ailing company.
To many, the success of ‘Good Manager’ is seen as an underdog victory, given its match-up with SBS TV’s big-budget ‘Saimdang’, starring heavyweight “hallyu” star Lee Young-ae.
Even before its premiere, media attention on ‘Good Manager’ was nowhere near ‘Saimdang’, which made headlines for bringing Lee of the famed show ‘Daejanggeum’ back to television for the first time in 14 years.
The two shows both started airing in the last week of January. Thanks to its hype, the premiere of ‘Saimdang’ recorded a whopping 15.6 per cent rating, while ‘Good Manager’ marked a modest 7.8 per cent debut.
But afterwards ‘Saimdang’ started to struggle, while the unassuming ‘Good Manager’ kept rising.
‘Saimdang’’s Thursday broadcast rebounded after losing ground for three consecutive episodes. Episode six recorded a 12 per cent viewership, up 1.2 percentage points from Wednesday.
The latest episode gave more time to the chemistry between the adult Saimdang played by Lee and her opposite Song Seung-heon.
Amid the weaker-thanexpected reception, the ‘Saimdang’ showrunners decided to re-edit the entirety of the show to speed up the plot. They are betting that the renewed edit will bring in more watchers.
MBC TV’s island castaway show ‘Missing 9’ trailed far behind, with viewership for Thursday’s episode at 4 per cent.