Michelle Topham 
The new KBS2 weekend drama Beauty and Mr. Romantic, Episode 1 aired on Saturday night to massive ratings.
Just like most weekend dramas, with their 50-plus episodes, Beauty and Mr. Romantic already pulled in the big audience with its first 1 hour and 10-minute episode last night, just like its predecessor Live Your Own Life managed for its entire run.
And, just like Live Your Own Life, the first episode of Beauty and Mr. Romantic also kicked off its run as the #1 most-watched show of any kind on Korean TV for all of Saturday.
Those ratings, according to Nielsen Korea, were 15.3 percent nationwide, and 14.1 percent in Seoul, and were only slightly lower than the ratings Live Your Own Life earned for its first episode (16.5 percent and 14.3 percent).
Now that’s a nice start to the Korean drama’s 50-episode run, eh?
Beauty and Mr. Romantic cast and plot
The new KBS2 drama stars Im Soo Hyang and Ji Hyun Woo in the main roles, with the excellent supporting cast of Go Yoon, Park Sang Won, Lee Il Hwa, Lee Young Eun, Cha Hwa Yun and Jung Jae Soon.
It tells the story of Park Do Ra (played by Im Soo Hyang), a top actress who has to constantly deal with her mother’s demands of “More, more, more”.
Those demands cause her to become incredibly stressed.
To the point, she wants to resign from her new drama Straightforward Romance. The problem is the assistant director is Go Pil Sung (Ji Hyun Woo), who was her first love.
Meanwhile, Pil Sung had problems with Do Ra when he was younger, and he wants to resign from Straightforward Romance as well. But then, an unusual assignment to exclusively lead her falls in his lap.
Beauty and Mr. Romantic is airing on KBS2 in South Korea every Saturday and Sunday at 19:55 (KST) , with Viki streaming the K-drama for its international subscribers.
Its next episode will air tonight, so let’s see if it manages to keep that #1 spot.
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