Baseball Season Affecting Drama Times, Cancellations, And Viewership Ratings

Fall in Korea means new dramas and the start of the professional baseball season.

Baseball is one of the most popular Korean professional sports to watch. The sport has many fans who guarantee high viewership ratings, so all other programs scheduled to air around the same time as a baseball game have started becoming affected by the games. MBC, SBS, and KBS have been taking turns broadcasting games and cancelling shows.

Usually, baseball games start at 6:30 p.m. and last for about three hours. This means any programs that start at the 10 p.m. timeslot will be affected, which is the usual timeslot for many dramas.

Dramas have already felt the aftereffects of being pushed out of their timeslot. SBS’s “Degree of Love” was cancelled last Tuesday which angered lots of viewers because the cancellation was announced 30 minutes after the regular air time. Previously, “Degree of Love” was the No. 1 drama in its timeslot at the time.

However, after the cancellation of the episode due to baseball and the continuing success of KBS2’s “Witch’s Court,” its viewership ratings dropped and the drama fell into second place.

MBC’s “Hospital Ship” was also delayed for 30 minutes on October 18 during the second round of playoffs. After the game, the nightly news aired, followed by “Hospital Ship.” The viewership ratings of SBS’s “While You Were Sleeping,” KBS2’s “Mad Dog,” and MBC’s “Hospital Ship” have all declined since cancellations started on October 18 and haven’t recuperated since.

The Korean baseball playoffs will come to an end on November 2.

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