Doctor X: Mafia in White has done it again, climbing to the highest ratings of its run with its fourth episode. According to Nielsen Korea, the SBS medical noir starring Kim Ji-won scored an average nationwide rating of 18.5 percent for Episode 4, extending a perfect streak in which the drama's viewership has risen with every single episode since its premiere.
The fourth episode aired on October 17 and finished as the most-watched program of the day. tvN's 100 Days of Deception had a milestone night of its own, defending its spot as Saturday's most-watched cable drama with a new personal best for its Saturday broadcasts.
Doctor X Keeps Climbing With Every Episode
Four episodes in, Doctor X has yet to lose a single viewer week over week. The trajectory tells the story of a word-of-mouth hit still gathering speed:
Episode 1: 11.4 percent nationwide
Episode 2: 14.9 percent nationwide
Episode 3: 15.1 percent nationwide
Episode 4: 18.5 percent nationwide — a new all-time high for the series
The medical noir stars Kim Ji-won as a brilliant surgeon at the center of a hospital power struggle, and its audience has grown through a run of headline-making episodes, including Jang Seung-jo's arrival as Na Dae-il in Episode 3. At this pace, the drama is closing in on the 20 percent mark that separates a hit from a phenomenon. The surge is not limited to Korean television either — the series has also been drawing viewers well beyond Korea, riding its domestic climb with a strong showing on Netflix's global charts in recent weeks.
100 Days of Deception Posts Its Best Saturday Yet
Over on cable, tvN's period spy romance 100 Days of Deception scored an average nationwide rating of 7.0 percent with its third episode, its highest Saturday figure so far. The episode kept the drama in place as the most-watched cable show of Saturday.
Set in 1932 Gyeongseong during the Japanese colonial period, the series stars Kim You-jung as Lee Ga-gyeong, a master pickpocket recruited by the independence movement to infiltrate the Japanese Government-General as an interpreter trainee. Park Jin-young plays Kim Tae-woong, also known as Sato Hideo, the elite interpreter she grows close to, with Kim Hyun-joo, Lee Moo-saeng and Jin Seon-kyu rounding out the cast of tvN's 20th anniversary project.
Elsewhere on Saturday, KBS 2TV's Love on the Menu stayed strong at 14.3 percent, while JTBC's Fly High Butterfly earned 1.4 percent ahead of its series finale and KBS 2TV's A Love Other Than Yours recorded 1.8 percent.
Both headline dramas are reaching international audiences as well: Doctor X is streaming globally on Netflix, and 100 Days of Deception is streaming on Netflix globally and on TVING in South Korea.
Source: Nielsen Korea via Naver
