There was a reason why the production crew and actors were confident that “it would “be many people‘s ‘life’s work’. Channel A‘s new Saturday-Sunday drama ‘The Witch’ announced a brisk start by breaking the broadcasting station’s all-time first broadcast record as soon as it first aired on the 15th.

According to Nielsen Korea, a viewership ratings research company, on the 16th, the first episode of ‘The Witch’ that aired the previous day achieved 2.4% nationwide. This viewership rating is the highest rating among the first broadcasts of Channel A‘s dramas ever. The previous record for first broadcast viewership ratings was ‘Show Window: The Queen’s House’, which started on November 29, 2021 with 2%.

In its first episode, ‘The Witch’ depicted the reunion of ‘data miner’ Lee Dong-jin (Park Jin-young), who analyzes data to find information, and translator Park Mi-jung (Noh Jeong-ui) who has hidden herself from the world with the stigma of being a ‘witch’. Through this, the loneliness of Park Mi-jung, who is under a ‘curse’ that causes men who like her to die, and Park Jin-young‘s earnest love that begins in earnest after reuniting with Park Mi-jung, whom he had watched from afar during his school days, were passionately portrayed.

‘The Witch’, where the male and female leads rarely have affectionate conversations and are rarely included in a single scene, is garnering attention from viewers who say it is a “unique romance drama”. Park Jin-young and Noh Jung-eui, who are considered the ‘Rookies of the Home Theater’, succeeded in drawing favorable reviews from viewers from the beginning by expressing the emotions of their characters with just their deep gazes.

Director Kim Tae-gyun, who made movies such as ‘Dark Figure of Crime’, and is now directing a drama for the first time, also seems to have received ‘Passing marks’ from viewers. Director Kim naturally interweaves the past and present of Park Jin-young and Noh Jung-eui, and captures everything from the innocent emotions of first love to the evils of ‘social witch hunt’ triggered by hatred.

The “glamourous special appearance” that Director Kim foreshadowed also played a big part in generating buzz. In the first episode, Joo Ji-hoon and Yoon Park appeared as immature brothers who fight each other. The scene where Park Jin-young guesses the relationship between Joo Ji-hoon and Yoon Park, whom he coincidentally runs into at the police station, using only data had the effect of impressing his ‘data mining’ abilities on the viewers. Director Kim had previously said at the production conference, “I will mobilize all of my personal connections to highlight the turning points of the two main characters even more.”

As ‘The Witch’, led solely by Park Jin-young and Noh Jung-eui, received higher ratings than tvN’s ‘Ask the Stars’ (1.9%), which stars top stars such as Gong Hyo-jin and Lee Min-ho, people both inside and outside the broadcasting industry are reacting by calling it ‘a great feat for the youth stars’.

In addition, since ‘Show Window: The Queen‘s House’, which starred Song Yoon-ah and Lee Sung-jae, started with 2%, ended with 10.3%, curiosity about the final results of ‘The Witch’ is already growing.



Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.