Delightfully Deceitful Ep 8 earns LOWEST ratings of season so far — WHY?

Photo courtesy tvN

Delightfully Deceitful, Episode 8 ratings should be better

I just cannot figure out why the Korean drama Delightfully Deceitful is not earning higher ratings than it is in South Korea.

After all, not only does it star two of Korea’s heavy hitters when it comes to main leads — Kim Dong Wook and Chun Woo Hee — the chemistry between the two is superb, the two main characters are fascinating with their quirks, the plot is interesting, the story is well-written, the entire cast is phenomenal, the cinematography is well-done and it really is an all-around fun watch.

But when Delightfully Deceitful, Episode 8 aired last night on tvN in South Korea, it earned its lowest ratings yet.

Throw in tvN has done a not-so-great job this year of giving not-in-Asia viewers legal access to several of its dramas (Family: The Unbreakable Bond and Stealer: The Treasure Keeper to name a couple), and with most Delightfully Deceitful viewers outside Asia being forced to watch the drama on dodgy websites, and it isn’t like tvN is making mega-bucks from international viewers watching the show either.

Delightfully Deceitful, Episode 8 ratings

The ratings for Delightfully Deceitful, Episode 8 via Nielsen Korea then are an added disappointment with the revenge drama earning 3.29 percent of the audience share nationwide last night.

That is down .22 percent from its previous episode, and down an even higher 1.26 percent from May 29th when its first episode aired.

In Seoul, the news wasn’t any better with an even lower 3.16 percent audience share, which was a decrease of 0.78 percent over Episode 7.

The only saving grace for the drama is that both numbers were enough to place it in second place in both regions for show’s airing on cable TV last night.

Hopefully things will look up when the drama’s next episode airs next Monday, as Delightfully Deceitful really does deserve far more attention that it has been able to get so far, and it’s not like international viewers can help that much.

Delightfully Deceitful airs every Monday and Tuesday at 20:50 (KST) on tvN in South Korea, as well as streams via TVING. Its next episode willl hit on Monday, June 26th.

Watch the preview (in Korean) for Episode 9 of the revenge drama below.

 

About Michelle Topham

Brit-American journalist based in Austria, former radio DJ at 97X WOXY, and Founder/CEO of Leo Sigh. I've covered K-drama, K-pop, J-pop and music news for over a decade.