Chapter 104
Even while I was lost in thought, the betting continued.
“Director, what about you? Hurry and place your bet.”
“For me? Even fifty percent wouldn’t be enough. Hahaha.”
At the FD’s question, Director Choi Kyungmin laughed cheerfully.
Then Choi Kyungmin turned to Director Hwang Donghyuk, who was sitting beside him.
“What about you, Director Hwang?”
“Hmm. Let’s see...”
At that moment, Hwang Donghyuk paused.
His eyes met mine in midair.
“I’m following Team Leader Min no matter what!”
“Huh? Why are you suddenly dragging me into this?”
I blinked at the unexpected declaration.
“Of course I am. If I don’t follow our Team Leader Min, the famous hitmaker and hit factory, who else am I supposed to follow? Am I wrong? Hahaha.”
Ah... haha... Why is everyone acting like this lately...?
The dating scandal involving Han Hyejoo had caused a result I had never expected.
People in the industry had started calling me a hitmaker.
Something like this had even happened once.
When I went to MBS, a drama director I had never seen before approached me as I left a meeting room and suddenly grabbed my hand.
“I heard every movie you planned became a hit. Share some of that luck with me. I’m starting a drama soon too. Please.”
Either way, because of that incident, I had unintentionally become something of a celebrity in the industry.
“Director, you’re teasing me, aren’t you?”
After another round of laughter...
At exactly ten o’clock, the opening sequence of The Woman’s Garden finally began playing on the television.
Without anyone saying a word, all of us became absorbed in the drama.
The next morning, we arrived at the office two hours earlier than usual.
Every one of us stared at the fax machine without moving.
“Didn’t they say the ratings usually come out around eight?”
“They said sometime between seven and nine in the morning. Let’s wait a little longer.”
Both Kang Jooyoung and Lee Hyunwoo sounded impatient.
Then it happened.
With a loud mechanical noise, the fax machine suddenly came to life and began spitting out printed sheets.
“It’s here!”
Lee Hyunwoo quickly snatched the paper from the fax machine and checked it.
I tried to suppress my impatience.
“How are the ratings? Are they good?”
A satisfied smile appeared on Lee Hyunwoo’s face.
“They’re good. 18.6 percent!”
“18.6? That’s much higher than the first-episode rating for Writer Hong Yeonhee’s previous drama, isn’t it?”
Excited, Kang Jooyoung clapped her hands.
“That’s right. This might even be one of the highest first-episode ratings ever. Hahaha.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
I let out a short breath of relief and took the fax from Lee Hyunwoo to check the numbers myself.
The sheet showed not only our drama’s ratings but also the ratings of dramas airing at the same time on the other networks.
There were even detailed figures by age group and minute-by-minute ratings.
18.6 percent!
Just as Lee Hyunwoo had said.
However...
As I looked over the rest of the page, my brow suddenly furrowed.
Our drama was second among the three terrestrial networks.
Then...
“Huh? We’re second. SBC’s Big Fish is first with 21.8 percent.”
Kang Jooyoung studied the page beside me and sounded disappointed.
“Ah... It’s not even that far ahead of us. That makes it feel even more frustrating.”
Of course, as Lee Hyunwoo had pointed out, this rating was higher than Writer Hong Yeonhee’s previous drama.
Compared with the first episodes of other dramas, it was also an excellent result.
But...
I still couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
Still, as the team leader, I couldn’t look discouraged.
I smiled at the team members, who also seemed disappointed.
“Maybe viewers found it unfamiliar because it feels very different from Writer Hong’s previous dramas. Even so, this is still an excellent result. Right?”
“O-Of course...”
Drama ratings were influenced by many different things.
Probably not as much as movies, where people had to physically go to a theater and pay for tickets, but still.
Ignoring the content itself, ratings could also depend on what drama aired in the same time slot, how aggressively the network marketed it, and even social issues or the general atmosphere of the country.
“Oh, apparently yesterday’s episode of SBC’s Big Fish had a scene where the male lead rescued the female lead from the sea and gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Maybe that helped.”
Big Fish had started airing one week before our drama.
Articles about that mouth-to-mouth scene were already covering the internet that morning.
It was only our first episode.
I encouraged the team by saying that things could improve if we focused more heavily on promotion from now on.
“First, contact the promotion department and make sure articles about our drama keep coming out. Also, print the ratings chart and every article related to our drama, then take everything to Executive Director Kim Eunkyung’s office.”
After giving instructions to the team, I immediately picked up the phone.
My first call was to Writer Hong Yeonhee’s studio.
“Hello?”
Do Kijeong’s voice came through the receiver.
“Hyung, it’s Kibaek. Where’s Writer Hong?”
“Oh, she checked the ratings earlier and went outside for some fresh air.”
“Really? How did she react?”
“She said she was relieved because it was much higher than the first episode of her previous drama. But I think she’s still a little disappointed because we didn’t get first place.”
“Hyung, this drama has a very different atmosphere compared to her previous work. And on top of that, yesterday on SBC’s Big Fish, there was that kiss scene or whatever...”
Do Kijeong interrupted me.
“Enough. You don’t have to try so hard with me too. I already told her the same thing.”
“Ah...”
“And Writer Hong is a professional. She’s not someone who’ll fall apart just because she didn’t get first place.”
