'The Red Sleeve': 2PM Junho's K-drama gets extra episode owing to high ratings
Looks like sageuk dramas aka historical period dramas are all the rage in South Korea. We have several K-dramas of this genre currently going on with the likes of ‘The King’s Affection’ starring SF9’s Rowoon, ‘Secret Royal Inspector & Joy’ starring 2PM’s Taecyeon, and ‘The Red Sleeve’ starring once again a 2PM member, Lee Junho. All three dramas are doing exceptionally well in their respective channels, are hitting double-digit viewership ratings, and are being constantly talked about by the general public. In fact, we are getting an extra episode from ‘The Red Sleeve’ due to its popularity.
The usual TV K-drama format has 16 episodes. Till episode 11, it is considered the first half of the show with one storyline. After that is resolved, we get a connecting storyline for the second half that gets resolved by episode 15 with usually a happy ending waiting in episode 16. With ‘The Red Sleeve’ only having just aired their episode 8, the production has yet to get on to the second half of the drama which has allowed them to add an extra episode giving the historical K-drama a total of 17 episodes.
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‘The Red Sleeve’ gets an extra episode
On December 9, it was reported that MBC had given ‘The Red Sleeve’ an extra episode. The MBC official shared, “A variety of stories have been prepared in the second half, including the full-fledged romance of the male and female protagonists. From now on, the production team and the cast will do their best until the very end to live up to the expectations of the viewers.” Fans are excited by how the second half of the show will develop now that the total duration of the show has increased.
TV ratings hit double digits
Since episode 3, the show has seen a constant rise in its viewership ratings according to Nielsen Korea’s chart. With the airing of episode 5, it became the most-watched drama across all channels of the same time slot. Since episode 6, ‘The Red Sleeve’ has been the second most-watched drama nationwide and went above 10% of the viewership ratings from episode 7. It is also the most-watched drama of the same time slot with a rating of 10.5% for its latest episode. It is also on the top for four weeks in a row for the most-talked-about drama. Additionally, we have its leads, Lee Se-young and 2PM’s Junho at #1 and #2 respectively as the most-buzzworthy actors at the moment.
The show is about the tragic court romance between Junho’s character, crown prince Yi San and his court lady, Seong Deok-im played by Se-young. Based on the true story of King Jeong-jo who led the renaissance of the Joseon dynasty, it is about the struggle between his love for his nation and his love for the court lady. ‘The Red Sleeve’ is broadcast every Friday and Saturday at 9:50 pm KST (7:50 am ET) on MBC’s channel. It is also available on VIKI for international fans.