Mun Ka-young the Romance Queen, Chae Soo-bin and Shin Ye-eun Faltering

There are mixed feelings for stars in their 20s who aim to be the 'post-romance queens'. Romance dramas starring Mun Ka-young, Chae Soo-bin and Shin Ye-eun, the new faces of the small screen, are accepting different report cards as they pass through the middle of the show. It proves the potential for their growth and heralds the exit amid regret. They drew attention for simultaneously presenting a love story with fresh charm to the small screen in spring. Above all, they also drew attention as next-generation stars who could replace the position of 'Romance Queen', which has long been monopolized by several seniors.

Advertisement

Mun Ka-young was the first person to stand out in the competition between the three. Playing the role of a passionate rising star in MBC's Wednesday-Thursday drama "Find Me in Your Memory" she is catching the eye of viewers with her cheerful charm. Helped by her collaboration with Kim Dong-wook, who won an MBC Drama Award last year, she leads the story with stable acting skills compared to previous dramas. As it is a colorful celebrity role, it also presents a spectacle of stylish fashion every time. "I will make sure that the three parts of the name Mun Ka-young can become my own strategy in the future", she declared.

However, in terms of ratings, there is a sense of regret. The drama, which began airing on March 18th and is in the second half, has been going back and forth between 3% and 4% of viewership. However, considering that ground-wave and cable satellite channel dramas in the same time slot only reach 1% to 2% ratings, it is possible to interpret that they are doing their part amid the overall downward trend.

On the other hand, Chae Soo-bin and Shin Ye-eun are in a situation where their bold challenge is overshadowed. Not only the poor ratings, but also the viewers' responses are not good. The low ratings of a drama cannot be an absolute standard for judging the main actors' skills, but the fact that they are 'new stars' who have been raising expectations does not make this a small regret to have.

TvN's Monday-Tuesday drama "A Piece of Your Mind", starring Chae Soo-bin with Jung Hae-in, calmly depicts the love between the two men and women through artificial intelligence, but failed to gain sympathy from viewers. After a slump in the 1% viewership range, the production adjusted its original 16-episode plan to end the show early with a 12-episode series on April 28th, about a month after the show began. The production team explained, "We decided to compress the work in order to increase the speed".

KBS 2TV's Wednesday-Thursday series "Meow, the Secret Boy" starring Shin Ye-eun, even suffered a humiliation in the ratings. According to Nielsen Korea, the fifteenth and sixteenth episodes of "Meow, the Secret Boy", which were split into two episodes on Wednesday, recorded 0.9% and 1.1%, respectively. It is the first time that ground-wave broadcasters have recorded the drama ratings of 0% at 10PM before and after the introduction of mid-term advertisements.