The ratings of Ji Sung’s recent K-dramas have not been promising
Famous for his versatile acting and ability to select the best script, Ji Sung has never disappointed in all of his works. However, in the past 5 years, despite still boasting top-notch acting, all the K-dramas Ji Sung starred in have been sporting poor ratings and disappointing popularity, making him no longer a rating guarantor.
In 2022, the famous actor is making a comeback with “Adamas”, which hopefully can turn the situation around. Nevertheless, below is a summary of Ji Sung’s work and their declining trend.
Innocent Defendant (2017)
Released in 2017, “Innocent Defendant” was the best performing K-drama of Ji Sung in the past 5 years, commercially-wise. The miniseries premiered at a rating of 11.9% and peaked at 26.6%, making it one of the most iconic works within the year.
In “Innocent Defendant”, Ji Sung flaunted a flawless and extremely convincing portrayal with all sorts of emotions and expressions, drawing in the viewers at every frame. This acting chops eventually won Ji Sung a Grand Prize Daesang at the 2017 SBS Drama Awards – an irrefutable worthy prize.
Familiar Wife (2018)
8.21% is by no means a low rating for “Familiar Wife”, especially since this K-drama aired on the paid channel tvN. However, compared to the virality of “Innocent Defendant”, “Familiar Wife” did fall behind. Co-starring with Ji Sung is the famous actress Han Ji Min, so the series could have performed a little bit better.
Nevertheless, “Familiar Wife” showed a completely different side of Ji Sung, especially when compared to “Innocent Defendant”, proving the actor’s insane versatility. It is unimaginable that the grim and serious character of a law drama can transform into a hilarious one in this romantic work.
Doctor John (2019)
In 2019, Ji Sung returned to SBS with the K-drama “Doctor John”, but unfortunately did not gain the same level of success. The drama, while meaningful with a lot of life lessons, was perhaps too grim to attain a huge commercial success.
Doctor John got off to a pretty good start but couldn’t keep his good track record. It hit a peak rating of 12.3% in the early episodes and plummeted to just over 5% by the end. Ji Sung’s acting performance in this drama is not as good as he always shows.
The Devil Judge (2021)
tvN’s The Devil Judge has received a lot of expectations from the audience before its broadcast. However, it did not become a hot topic, although the highest rating of 7.96% is not a bad number at all. Compared to the comeback of his wife, Lee Bo Young, with Mine, Ji Sung’s The Devil Judge has a much worse record.
The chemistry between Ji Sung and Park Jin Young is also not really impressive. Compared to other tvN dramas in 2021 like Vincenzo (14.6%), Hospital Playlist 2 (14.08%), Hometown Cha Cha Cha (12.665%)… it’s not surprising that The Devil Judge and Ji Sung were such oblivion.
Adamas (2022)
Only the first few episodes of Adamas have been released so it’s still too early to draw conclusions, but looking at Adamas’ ratings, it doesn’t seem to have a good track record. It hit 3.5% in the opening episode but dropped quite sharply to just over 2.8% in the next episode, which is definitely not a good sign. Fortunately, in episode 3, Adamas moved up a bit with a rating of 3,339% but that is still not a commendable stat.
Commercial achievements aside, Ji Sung’s acting skills in Adamas make the public feel much more interesting as he plays the twin roles by himself. Hopefully, Adamas will have better results in the next episodes
