IU and Byeon Woo-seok’s drama ‘Missing Crown Prince’ premiered to impressive ratings, attracting significant interest.
The first episode of MBC’s Friday-Saturday drama ‘Missing Crown Prince’, which aired on the 10th, recorded 8.2% in the metropolitan area and 7.8% nationwide, according to Nielsen Korea. It topped the ratings for Friday-Saturday dramas and all Friday programs in the metropolitan area.
This marks the third-highest premiere rating in MBC’s Friday-Saturday drama history, following ‘Chief Detective 1958’ (10.1%) and ‘Knight Flower’ (7.9%). The narrow 0.1% gap with the second-place ‘Knight Flower’ left fans wanting more.
This remarkable performance is particularly noteworthy given that its predecessor, ‘The Season of You and Me,’ struggled with a peak rating of 4.4%.
IU has already proven her status as a ‘ratings goddess’ through dramas such as ‘Dream High’, ‘You’re the Best, Lee Soon-shin’, and ‘Producer’. Byeon Woo-seok garnered significant attention for his role in ‘Lovely Runner’, making their collaboration highly anticipated.
Surpassing its predecessor’s performance in its first episode, the show has heightened curiosity about its future success.
Interestingly, MBC’s highest-rated Friday-Saturday drama is ‘Knight Flower’ (18.4%), which premiered with the second-highest rating. Meanwhile, ‘The Red Sleeve’ ranks second overall but did not place in the premiere ratings (17.4%).
‘Chief Detective 1958’, which had the highest premiere rating, did not gain significant traction afterward and concluded as the seventh highest-rated at 10.8%.
The question remains whether ‘Missing Crown Prince’ will follow the path of ‘Knight Flower’ or ‘Chief Detective 1958’.
