[HanCinema's News] "Little Women" Carves Out Strong Niche in the Wake of "Alchemy of Souls"

On August 28th, "Alchemy of Souls" ended with ratings of 9.218%. The fantasy historical drama may not have quite lived up to expectations in terms of ratings, but it was still reasonably successful and the sequel series "Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow" is expected to do similarly well in December. For now, though, "Alchemy of Souls" has been followed up in its timeslot by "Little Women" and the mystery family drama is doing quite well for its narrow niche.

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The ratings for "Little Women" have been relatively erratic. It started out with 6.395% ratings on September 3rd, hit 7.747% on September 4th, but then went down to 5.587% on September 10th beore closing at another high of 7.256% on September 11th. "Little Women" airs worldwide on Netflix, and recently hit a high point of eleventh place on FlixPatrol worldwide for Netflix. The drama is particularly popular in Indonesia, the only country where it has a number one ranking.

"Little Women" was one of the more peculiar recent choices for tvN as a network, as family dramas aren't generally a part of its brand, which tends to skew to younger viewers. "Little Women" also lacks a clear high concept. It's based on the famous nineteenth century American novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott, although the connection is a loose one. The main plot still concerns a struggle with a wealthy corporate family in modern day South Korea.

But "Little Women" as a novel as well as in subsequent adaptations has always been a story about the relationship between sisters. While tvN's core demographic has been younger viewers, it has also been women, and it's rare to see a television story focusing on such relationships in the major drama format. Indeed, "Little Women" has no comparable competition in this regard either in its own Friday/Saturday timeslot or at any other time of the week.

"Little Women" still lags behind "Big Mouth" which had 10.6% ratings in its most recent episode, the fourteenth, on September 10th. In the long run "Little Women" will likely have greater reach than the legal thriller simply because it's more widely licensed. "Big Mouth" is a Disney+ drama, and thus not available in many regions. In the immediate sense, however, "Little Women" has already outperformed expectations, putting wind in tvN's sails ahead of the end-of-year season.

Written by William Schwartz

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"Little Women" is directed by Kim Hee-won-II, written by Jeong Seo-kyeong, and features Kim Go-eun, Nam Ji-hyun, Park Ji-hu, Kang Hoon, Jo Seung-yeon, Gong Min-jung. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2022/09/03~Now airing, Sat, Sun 21:10 on TVING, tvN.