The first episode of the new tvN drama The Midnight Romance in Hagwon performed beautifully last night, with the Korean drama grabbing first place on cable TV in its time slot.
The drama aired in the same time slot as the recently ended Queen of Tears.
Figures out from Nielsen Korea show The Midnight Romance in Hagwon, Episode 1 earned a very solid 5.16 percent of the nationwide audience, and an even higher 6.32 percent in Seoul.
Considering there were also three other dramas airing in the same time slot — Chief Detective 1958, Missing Crown Prince and The Escape of the Seven: Resurrection — grabbing that much of the viewership for a new untested K-drama is pretty damned good.
Preliminary international ratings for The Midnight Romance in Hagwon
While ratings change as a K-drama continues to air, the preliminary international ratings for the tvN drama show this…
Users of My Drama List are rating it a low 7.9 out of 10 — but pretty typical for users of the site, who tend to be stingy with their ratings unless it features a former “idol” actor, or some other South Korean actor/actress with a huge fan base, and then something that is utter drivel earns high ratings.
Over on Viki, where The Midnight Romance in Hagwon is streaming, the opposite is true, as the K-drama is earning a too high 9.8 out of 10.
But there have been rumors for years that the management of Viki artificially inflates their ratings just to get people to watch a drama.
In other words, the real international ratings for The Midnight Romance in Hagwon are likely something in the middle 8.0 out of 10’s — solid, and a very good start for a K-drama that, started a little slow with its first episode, but definitely shows promise.
The Midnight Romance in Hagwon stars Wi Ha Joon, Jung Ryeo Won and So Ju Yeon.
It airs every Saturday and Sunday on tvN in South Korea, and streams soon after on Viki.