Drama
tvN shakes up its schedule, adds Wednesday-Thursday dramas
May 17, 2017
Ever experimenting with its drama lineup,
cable station tvN has announced a significant change in its scheduling plans,
going six days a week with drama programming. That’s quite the increase from
the four days a week it currently programs: one Monday-Tuesday series and one
Friday-Saturday series (it did experiment with a second Friday-Saturday slot
recently with Entourage, in the late-night hour, but doesn’t look like it’ll be
keeping that on the schedule).
To that end, tvN is adding a
Wednesday-Thursday drama slot to the schedule, and will be shifting its
Friday-Saturday shows to a more traditional Saturday-Sunday slot. On the one
hand, I tend to like tvN dramas so having more choices mid-week isn’t a terrible
thing. On the other hand, I often feel like I’m drowning in dramas already, and
now I have to contend with two more hours a week? I love-hate this idea, and I
love-hate it hard.
One station rep explained that the decision
comes out of the station’s recent ratings slump in an effort to breathe new
life into things. After all, while tvN has been home to many of cable’s (and TV
in general’s) biggest success stories, it also has its fair share of
underperformers; this year has produced lower-than-expected ratings for many of
its offerings, like Introverted Boss, Tomorrow With You, and Chicago
Typewriter.
I find the weekend shift an interesting
move too, because tvN really went after the empty Friday-night timeslot with
gusto and premiered its biggest hits there (the latter two Answer Me series,
Misaeng, Signal, Goblin), then solidified the block by adding a Na PD variety
hour that regularly commands strong ratings (the Grandpas/Noonas/Youths Over
Flowers franchise, the Three Meals a Day series, Yoon’s Kitchen). They were so
successful there that other stations attempted to compete, to mixed results.
KBS tried it with The Producers, for example, and is reviving that slot next
month with variety-drama series The Best Hit, followed by Strongest
Deliveryman.
So it’s odd that as other stations are
shifting to Fridays and Saturdays, tvN is heading to the more conventional
Saturday-Sunday lineup. The drama slot will move from the 8 p.m.
Friday-Saturday hour to the 9 p.m. Saturday-Sunday hour, which goes up against
SBS and MBC dramas as well as variety programs like Gag Concert; KBS airs its
weekend family dramas an hour earlier, which removes one of the big sources of
competition, since their weekenders often draw the big ratings (What’s With
This Family, Five Kids, Laurel Tree Tailors, Father Is Strange). I do think
OCN’s success with Tunnel helped, and there’s an argument to be made for
counterprogramming with different types of content.
The first tvN drama to be affected by this
scheduling change will be Forest of Secrets, the pre-produced thriller starring
Jo Seung-woo (God’s Gift—14 Days) and Bae Doo-na (Tunnel). It premieres on June
10 as a Saturday-Sunday drama. The Wednesday-Thursday drama block will launch
in July. (Note that it isn’t the first Wednesday-Thursday drama ever for tvN;
when the station aggressively expanded its original drama programming six years
ago, it started with Manny as a Wednesday-Thursday show and kept the slot for
several series, including Queen In-hyun’s Man, before shifting over to the
Monday-Tuesday slot.)
More dramas! HOW WILL I FIND THE TIME.Source-http://www.dramabeans.com/2017/05/tvn-shakes-up-its-schedule-adds-wednesday-thursday-dramas/