[HanCinema's News] "The King: Forever Sovereign" Continues Ratings Slump

Over the weekend "The King: Eternal Monarch" only just barely managed to avoid hitting a new ratings low, with its eleventh episode Friday broadcast of 6.6% narrowly defeating the 6.3% ratings of the ninth episode, which aired the previous Friday. The Saturday episode had similarly weak improvement, improving from 7.8% to 8.1% relative to the previous week.

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These numbers are in context to an 11.6% high from the previous week. With only four episodes to go, strictly speaking "The King: Eternal Monarch" is at a climax point. Yet the storyline has failed to impress viewers. Even a dramatic kiss scene featuring lead actors Lee Min-ho and Kim Go-eun has done surprisingly little in terms of engagement.

"The King: Eternal Monarch" has suffered publicity problems ever since it started airing. Inconsistent worldbuilding, bad dialog, and aggressive product placement have all remained constant fixtures in the drama's perception and have prevented the drama from making a strong impact in spite of the high expectations placed by a production team with a reputation for hitmakers.

Domestically "The King: Eternal Monarch" is only barely outperforming variety shows on competing broadcast networks that share its timeslot. Ironically enough this weak competition is mainly due to other networks effectively deciding to concede the timeslot to "The King: Eternal Monarch" ahead of time. It remains to be seen whether the drama can counterbalance its weak domestic performance with a strong international one, as was the case with "Arthdal Chronicles" last year.

Written by William Schwartz

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"The King: Eternal Monarch" is directed by Baek Sang-hoon, Jung Ji-hyun, written by Kim Eun-sook, and features Lee Min-ho, Kim Go-eun, Woo Do-hwan, Kim Kyung-nam, Jung Eun-chae, Lee Jung-jin. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2020/04/17~Now airing, Fri, Sat 22:00 on SBS.