MBC's Sageuk 주몽 (Jumong) Becomes Major Hit

Presenting Master Choi Wan-Gyu's latest work a couple of weeks ago, we jokingly said if there was anything likely to hit the 20% Ratings soon on TV this year, that'd certainly be 주몽 (Jumong). With a pretty incredible start and two episodes with production values in line with the best of Chungmuro (they cost over 2 Billion Won. That's a little less than 2/3 of the average budget for an entire Miniseries), the Historical Drama starring Song Il-Guk, Han Hye-Jin, Oh Yeon-Soo and a host of other stars started with a bang. Although later episodes slowed down the intensity a little, it was only to further setup the initial outline, thing that is writer Choi's forte, and he's probably the best in the business at that.

Ratings saw a gradual increase, from the 16.3% of the first episode to 28.7% of the 6th last week. But when Monday's 7th Episode slowed down and scored a 27.9% people thought things had now stabilized, and we'd see ratings similar to SBS' 서동요 (The Ballad of Seo Dong), which in its final run recorded ratings in the mid 20s. But then yesterday's Episode changed everything: Jumong was seen by 32.3% of the viewing population last night, which is the third highest rating of the year. With Hur Joon-Ho's impressive turn as Hae Mosu now coming to an end, and the two major characters (Song Il-Guk's Jumong and Han Hye-Jin's Soseono) entering the field the Drama will now start enveloping its main storyline, after dealing with the introductory first few episodes. Ratings should go even higher, and although expecting feats like the 50.5% of last year's 내 이름은 김삼순 (My Lovely Sam-Soon) is a little far-fetched for now, we can be sure of a few things:

1) Jumong should have no problem claiming the top spot as this year's Most Popular Drama.
2) MBC's decision to focus on Historical Dramas during the week paid off handsomely, as their past Miniseries did pretty badly, but now Jumong is destroying competition. This Mon/Tue Night slot will become similar to what KBS was doing with its historical Dramas, as after this in Late January we're getting another Sageuk, 대무신왕 (King Daemushin).
3) The more popular this thing becomes, the more likely it will see a DVD Release. And if the first 5-6 episodes are of any indication, it'll be well worth the high price its 60 Episodes will command.

The show will skip next week because of the World Cup, so if you still have some catching up to do, this is the best of times. As always, more ratings, news and other info in the K-Drama Hub.