KBS2 series Face Me, Episode 1 premiered the new Korean drama last night and went on to earn pretty decent first ratings in the Asian country.
Those ratings via Nielsen Korea were 3.3 percent nationwide, and 3.2 percent from viewers in Seoul.
They were, however, lower than the ratings for Dog Knows Everything for its first episode (4.2o percent/4.0 percent) but quite a bit higher than those for Perfect Family (2.6 percent/2.2 percent)
Those two Korean dramas, of course, aired in the same time slot on the same network.
In other words, just one episode in for Face Me, and its ratings could go anywhere going forward.
Ratings from international viewers for Face Me
The ratings from Face Me audiences outside South Korea are very preliminary but, at this point at least, it appears the K-drama is being well-received.
Well, if you ignore the usual immature fools over at My Drama List (MDL) who, after Episode 1, are already rating Face Me an incredibly low 6.4 out of 10. (And I’m sorry, but I’m done linking to that site’s ridiculous ratings and, thus, giving them “link juice”, so you will have to search for it yourself).
And that just serves to prove what I have been saying for years about the MDL ratings.
They are not remotely reliable when it comes to deciding if a drama (Korean, Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Indian or otherwise) will be a decent watch.
That is because the site has a sizable number of resident trolls who, if one thing in an episode “offends” them, will go into full-on “burn that drama to the ground and salt the earth with the ashes of its cast and crew” mode.
If, of course, MDL insisted on blocking ratings of any kind until at least the first three episodes have been aired, this would go a long way to fixing the stupidity.
But, so far, they haven’t.
What that means is, with a current 6.4 out of 10, you can expect the Face Me ratings to massively swing upwards in coming weeks, when the real ratings are given.
When the trolls have gotten bored and moved onto another drama to decimate, that is.
Meanwhile, on Viki, (which monitors its ratings much more closely and gets rid of the troll ratings quickly) with just 21 viewers rating Face Me so far, it is running at a 9.8 out of 10.
Personally, I think that number is a little high with an 8.9 or 9.0 out of 10 more realistic, and so that rating will likely fall. But… at least Viki subscribers aren’t being allowed to decimate a drama before it’s barely even started.
So there’s that.
Face Me stars Lee Min Ki, Han Ji Hyun, Lee Yi Kyung, and Jeon Bae Soo. It is an excellent cast, by the way, and all did a superb job in Episode 1.
It airs every Wednesday and Thursday evening on KBS2 in South Korea, with Viki streaming it internationally.
Watch Face Me, Episode 2 tonight, and I’ll be back with its ratings tomorrow.
