‘She Was Pretty’ Was Cancelled Causing The Next Day’s Episode To Break A Ratings Record
Last week, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation’s She Was Pretty was reported to receive the most beautiful ratings for a K-drama that airs on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9:55 p.m. KST. There are two major reasons for its success — the first is its cast. Besides notable K-drama actors from Kill Me, Heal Me, Hwang Jung Eum and Park Seo Joon, playing the primary leads, Siwon of popular K-pop mega group Super Junior was cast too. Apparently, he is the breakout star of She Was Pretty.
The plot for She Was Pretty is the second reason for its high ratings. According to a synopsis, Ji Sung Joon (Park Seo Joon) was ugly when he was young, but as he grew older, he began to be attractive. Kim Hye Jin (Hwang Jung Eum), was the prettiest girl when she was young, but became ugly when she grew up. Back when Sung Joon and Hye Jin were young, they were the closest of friends. Unfortunately, they were separated. After years of being apart, they met by happenstance as co-workers for a fashion magazine. Hye Jin, remembering her friend, who was also her first love, recognizes Sung Joon. Unfortunately for her, Sung Joon remembers her how she was, not how she is today.
As of now, She Was Pretty is halfway done and its eighth episode aired on Thursday, October 8, 2015. The ending, however, was a major revelation, one that caused the editorial staff for The Most, the fashion magazine both Ji Sung Joon and Kim Hye Jin work for, to react with the following expressions.
So what exactly happened to the entire editorial staff, including Kim Shin Hyuk (Siwon), to react with such an expression? Let’s just say the “was” in the title is no longer valid as Kim Hye Jin’s hair is no longer a mess, her clothes are brand new, and her face has lost her father’s features. That’s right, Hye Jin is once again pretty.
However, the revelation happened at the end of the eighth episode. As a result, viewers were wondering how the transformation from ugly to pretty happened as detailed by the ratings the ninth episode earned. According to the ratings by both TNS Media Korea and AGB Nielson provided by AsianWiki, the average viewership for Seoul was 18.5 percent, while the average viewership for the nation was 16.5 percent. If we were to take into account the average viewership for the eighth episode for Seoul (15.9 percent) and the nation (13.9 percent), the ratings jump for both is an average of 2.6 percent. For any K-drama, that is huge. Not to mention, rare too since Yong Pal is the only other K-drama this year to achieve such popular numbers.
Now to be fair, one of the major reasons why the ninth episode of She Was Pretty got such a ratings boost is because of a situation that happened on Wednesday, October 14, 2015. According to KdramaStars, the said episode was supposed to air in its time slot, but was cancelled instead. The reason why is because a semi-finals baseball game between the Doosan Bears and Nexen Heroes went into extended innings, causing it to go into She Was Pretty‘s time slot. Needless to say, many fans were upset as over 2,000 complaints were posted on the MBC viewer message boards. Not only that, many users on Viki showed their disdain as well.
For those interested in watching She Was Pretty, it airs on Wednesdays and Thursdays on the MBC at 9:55 p.m. KST. For those who don’t have access to the channel, it can be viewed for free (with ads) on both DramaFever and Viki. Please note that Viki has exclusive first viewing rights. Therefore DramaFever is behind by three episodes.
[Featured Image via Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation/She Was Pretty Promotions, Post Images via Screen Captures of She Was Pretty]
