Yoon Sung-sik's new television series Mr Queen's viewership is on the rise. After registering an impressive rating for its premiere last weekend, it has now attracted new viewers for its latest episode.
As per Nielsen Korea, Shin Hye Sun and Kim Jung Hyun-starrer has recorded an average nationwide rating of 9.0 percent for its third episode aired on Saturday, 19 December. It touched a peak of 11.3 percent, which is the highest for the drama to date.
It is said that Mr Queen occupied the numero uno position in its time slot across the channels. For the premiere, Yoon Sun-sik-directed show got an average nationwide rating of 8.8 percent with a peak of 9.9 percent, thereby occupying the top place in its time slot across all cable channels. Thus becoming the second-highest viewed show for any weekend drama for tvN after Mr Sunshine, which had opened to an average nationwide rating of 8.9 percent in 2018.
Controversies:
This is quite an achievement as there is an improvement in viewership despite facing controversies. The TV series is a screen adaptation of Chinese novel Tai Zi Fei Sheng Zhi Ji written by Xian Chen. The author had allegedly made a derogatory comment against Koreans in another work which was the reason why netizens were not happy with Mr Queen.
If it was not enough, a line in episode 2 had angered Koreans. The netizens had vented out anger over the line referring a character to The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty as "merely jirashi."
The production team apologised to the fans over both the controversies. It stated that the production house was unaware of the writer's controversial comments when it purchased the rights.
Also, the team deleted the line about The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty. The statement from the production house read, "Also, we seriously accept that the line about The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty was inappropriate, and we have deleted the narration that was a problem. In regard to other historical figures and incidents as well, we had no intention to represent them negatively.
With "Mr. Queen" as a drama of the "fusion historical fantasy comic" genre, we borrowed figures and settings from history, but it's fiction based on a creative work that began with the idea of "What would happen if a modern soul met a real figure and caused waves?"
