K-Drama

5 K-dramas that had to end earlier than planned due to low viewership ratings 

These 5 K-dramas were supposed to last longer. 

With the way of filming at the same time as airing of many K-dramas, low viewership ratings can cause them to get cut off shorter than the original plan. Here are 5 examples. 

Love Frequency 37.2

Love Frequency 37.2 follows Captain (Yoon Gun), an announcer who steals the fequency of a radio program, where listeners send their love stories. Having a fun and romantic plot, Love Frequency 37.2 still failed to attract the public’s attention. Initially, the drama was scheduled to have 16 episodes, but was cut down by more than half, leaving only 6 episodes.

Ex-Girlfriends’ Club

Aired in 2005, Ex-Girlfriends’ Club marked the return to the small screen of Song Ji Hyo. Song Ji Hyo plays Kim Soo Jin, the ex-girlfriend mentioned by Bang Myung Soo in his webtoon . When the webtoon became famous and was made into a live action, Bang Myung Soo reunited with his ex-girlfriend, creating many funny situations.

Despite starring Song Ji Hyo, Ex-Girlfriends’ Club could not escape the poor ratings because the story was not well-written. The first episode only achieved a rating of 1.16% which is also the highest rating across its airtime. Ex-Girlfriends’ Club ended up getting cut down from 16 to 12 episodes because the ratings never exceeded 1%.

Beautiful Mind 

Beautiful Mind starring Jang Hyuk and Park So Dam is inspired by the classic Frankenstein novel. In the drama, surgeon Lee Young Oh suffers from apathy. It wasn’t until his patient died in an inexplicable way that his life began to change.

The drama has many factors that could lead to success, but it only reached an average rating of 3.7%, which is quite low when broadcast on a major TV channel like KBS. Thus, from the original plan of 16 episodes, the series was cut to 14 episodes, leaving the audience with many regrets.

Mom Is Acting Up

Mom Is Acting Up starring the”national grandmother” Na Moon Hee, along with two pretty popular names of L (INFINITE) and Kim Sae Ron. The content of the drama is about the children of Mrs.Na who suddenly return home to live with their mother after facing struggles in their life. In order to “deal” with her children, Mrs. Na had a strict and unique way of upbringing.

As a family-themed drama, “Mom Is Acting Up” would be Na Moon Hee’s next success after High Kick 1. However, the show was suddenly cut from 120 episodes to only 27 episodes by MBC to make room for new projects due to its low rating records.

A Piece Of Your Mind

Although successful hits such as D.P or Something In The Rain for Me, A Piece Of Your Mind is truly a downfall of Jung Hae In.  In 2020, he participated in the project “A Piece of Your Mind”, playing an AI programmer “falling in love” with a classical music recording expert (played by Chae Soo Bin).

A Piece Of Your Mind was commented on as rambling and unattractive with its highest viewership rating of only 2.4% – quite low compared to the common ground of a drama aired on a famous cable station.  As a result, the series was cut from 16 episodes down to only 12 episodes.

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