Kim Ji-won and Kim Yoo-jung Both Land Record Premieres in One Weekend Ratings Sweep

Doctor X with Kim Ji-won climbed from an 11.4% premiere on the 9th to 14.9% on the 10th, the highest Saturday rating across all channels, according to Nielsen Korea national household figures. On the same weekend, Kim Yoo-jung's 100 Days of Lies opened at 5.3% on tvN, so two returning leads both started with records.

The pattern matters because weekend dramas have struggled to break 20% in recent years. Even KBS 2TV's weekend leader Love Is Coming, which drew 14.7% on the 10th, has stayed in the 16% range.

Doctor X: a first-week surge

Kim Ji-won returned to television for the first time since tvN's Queen of Tears in 2024. In SBS's Friday-Saturday medical noir Doctor X: The Age of the White Mafia, she plays Kye Su-jung, a freelance "mercenary" surgeon who takes on hospital authority and corruption with surgical skill that borders on the superhuman.

The 11.4% premiere is the best opening for an SBS Friday-Saturday drama this year and the best for any 2026 miniseries. It also beat the 9.5% debut of Mr. Kim, which went on to pass 23%. The second episode's 14.9% was a series high, though it fell just short of the 15.7% that Mr. Kim posted in its second episode.

As it did for Mr. Kim, word of mouth on online communities and social media has fed expectations of a further rise in week two. Whether it can become the second 20% miniseries of the year is the open question.

100 Days of Lies: a record for tvN weekends

TvN's 20th-anniversary special weekend drama is a spy romance set in colonial-era Gyeongseong. A top pickpocket turned informant meets an elite interpreter at the Government-General of Korea, and the story unfolds over 100 days. Kim Yoo-jung leads, with Kim Hyun-joo, Lee Moo-saeng, Jin Seon-kyu and Park Jin-young in the cast.

The 5.3% premiere on the 10th, measured on Nielsen Korea's paid-platform national household basis, is the best opening for a tvN weekend drama this year. It topped Undercover Miss Hong (3.5%, later peaking at 13.1%), Secret Audit (4.4%, peak 9.7%) and its predecessor Four Hands (3.4%). It is also the first 5% premiere for a tvN weekend drama since Typhoon Inc. a year ago. It got there while partly overlapping with Doctor X.

The second episode rose to 7.6% on the 11th, first among all cable and general-programming channels in the Sunday 9 p.m. hour. Opposite it, KBS 2TV's A Different Romance Than You drew 1.9%.

The lead character, Lee Ga-gyeong, becomes an informant for the resistance group Gukgudan out of personal ambition rather than conviction about independence. That premise suggests a story with more tension than a standard period romance.

Week two will show whether both dramas can hold these numbers.