The new SBS drama My Demon, Episode 2 aired last night to a big drop in ratings.
According to Nielsen Korea, My Demon‘s latest nationwide rating was 3.4 percent — a drop of over 1.0 percent from Friday night, when Episode 1 earned 4.5 percent of the audience share.
In Seoul, the drama saw an even bigger drop, with its audience share falling from Episode 1’s 5.1 percent to Episode 2’s 3.4 percent.
That being said, K-drama’s often see an audience drop with their second episode then rebound with subsequent ones.
In other words, it isn’t possible to predict how well or poorly My Demon will perform in South Korea until a few more episodes have premiered.
My Demon‘s real strength?
The likely problem for My Demon‘s rating in South Korea is that it is airing in the same time slot as the already popular after just two episodes MBC drama The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract.
That drama earned higher ratings than My Demon on Friday night for its first episode, then saw a small ratings rise for its second episode on Saturday as well.
That being said, My Demon‘s real strength is that, unlike The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract, which is streaming on Viki, My Demon managed to grab a coveted spot on Netflix.
That likely means, not only did Netflix pay a huge chunk of the production costs for My Demon plus an additional licensing fee to the production company, the K-drama is now available for audience’s worldwide to watch for (probably) several years.
Thus, giving My Demon a much bigger chance of garnering the massive international audiences that The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract on Viki, a much smaller streaming platform, will not be able to earn.
No matter how many years it remains on that platform.
Throw in that My Demon‘s plot is very much the type of story Netflix viewers seem to love (and, come on, Song Kang and Kim Yoo Jung!), and I am guessing the Korean drama will quickly hit the platform’s Top 10 Most-Watched Non-English TV Shows chart.
And then stay there.
My Demon stars Kim Yoo Jung, Song Kang, Lee Sang Yi, and Kim Hae Sook
The next episode of the fantasy romance K-drama, which by the way is superb and well-worth a watch, will air on Friday, December 1st both on SBS and Netflix.