Many people believe that it’s time for MBC to let go of the hit drama “The Red Sleeve”.
Apart from the drama’s reruns, “The Red Sleeve” has been mentioned from time to time and the cast members’ old shows were also re-aired. The drama even has a two-week broadcast on “Radio Star” and a Lunar New Year Special. Even after “The Red Sleeve” ended, MBC has been “cooking” its content over and over again for another month.
On January 26th and February 2nd, two episodes of the “Let’s Go to Our Palace” Special for MBC’s entertainment show “Radio Star” were aired. Of course, this “Let’s Go to Our Palace” Special gained huge success. Lee Jun-ho appeared on the show and showed his “Lee Fox” aspect, captivating all viewers. He melted the hearts of female fans with his special skills and performed the stage of “My House” while wearing the royal outfit, fulfilling his rating promise.
Thanks to Lee Jun-ho and other hard-working cast actors of “The Red Sleeve”, the first episode of “Let’s Go to Our Palace” Special aired on January 26th recorded a rating of 8.6% (based on the Seoul metropolitan area), ranking No.1 in the rating chart of TV shows of the same broadcasting time. The second part of this special broadcast was aired on February 2nd and continued to dominate the top spot on the viewership chart of TV shows of the same broadcasting time with a 7.0% rating.
However, unlike how the popularity of “The Red Sleeve” actors increased the ratings of “Radio Star”, the Lunar New Year Special “Holding on to The Red Sleeve” didn’t gain high viewership.
Compared to “Radio Star”, which featured only 6 actors, including Lee Jun-ho, Lee Se-young, Kang Hoon, Jang Hye-jin, and Oh Dae-hwan, The Lunar New Year Special was guested by up to 10 people, including actor Lee Deok-hwa and director Jung Ji-in, but recorded a disappointing rating of only 3.2%.
Aired on January 31st, the Lunar New Year Special “Holding on to The Red Sleeve” raised expectations even before its official broadcast. It was because MBC hinted at revealing several behind-the-scenes stories of famous episodes and scenes and carrying out a Q&A corner to explain what the viewers are still curious about the drama.
No matter how well-prepared the show was, if the same content kept being repeated, people would get tired of it. The highly-anticipated Lunar New Year Special broadcast only disappointed the viewers.
The fact that MBC is taking advantage of the heat and keeps repeating the released episodes and stories related to the best hit drama with double-digit ratings they produced for the first time after more than 3 years, gave the audiences a sense of boredom and exhaustion.
Netizens who watched the “Holding on to The Red Sleeve” Special commented, “I felt like I was wasting my time. The broadcast was too long”, “It was boring”, “They should stop repeating the drama’s content”, “At this point, MBC should have given this drama the daesang”, “Is ‘The Red Sleeve’ the only successful drama they have?”
It’s time for MBC to let go of the hit “The Red Sleeve”. Attention is now focusing on what else will MBC produce after the success of this drama.
