The Judge Returns Ep 5 earns HUGE ratings jump – increases almost 5.0 percentage points vs Ep 4
Michelle Topham 
The legal-themed mystery drama’s ratings are not slowing down
Ongoing MBC drama The Judge Returns, Episode 5 aired last night to a huge jump in its ratings, and to a double digit audience share for the very first time.
That means the Korean drama has not seen any audience decline since it premiered with solid ratings, but has only experienced rapidly increasing audiences as word has spread.
According to the latest data from Nielsen Korea, The Judge Returns, Episode 5 earned 10.0 percent of the nationwide viewership compared to the much lower 5.8 percent the K-drama garnered for Episode 4.
That’s heading towards a 5.0 percent increase in its audience share in just six days.
The fifth episode of The Judge Returns also saw even higher ratings from viewers in Seoul, grabbing 10.1 percent of that region’s viewership.
Both ratings also meant the South Korean drama was the #1 most-watched show across all TV channels in its time slot.
Congratulations to everyone involved for a massive increase in the K-drama’s market share in South Korea, eh?
International ratings for The Judge Returns also rise
Meanwhile, the mystery-themed law drama has also seen a rise in its ratings from international viewers with one popular Asian drama-focused site’s users increasing their ratings from a 7.9 out of 10 to its current 8.1 out of 10.
And, while only 95 people have rated The Judge Returns on IMDB so far, those 95 are awarding the K-drama an average of 8.9 out of 10 (an extremely high rating for that site).
IMDB users also rated each of the last four episodes a very high average of 9.0 to 9.1.
The K-drama’s highest ratings, however, come from Viki viewers, with almost 800 people now awarding the fantasy crime drama an exceedingly high average of 9.6 out of 10 on that site.
Yep, the Korean series’ viewership and ratings are rapidly improving in leaps and bounds, and with nine more episodes still to premiere.
Let’s see how its sixth episode performs tonight then.
The Judge Returns stars the lead cast of Ji Sung, Park Hee Soon, and Won Jin Ah, and airs every Friday and Saturday night at 21:50 (KST) on MBC in South Korea, with international streaming via Viki around the same time.
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