I am a Veteran of more than 14 weekenders since 2016. We started a discussion on the state of the weekend “family” drama. At one point, all three major Korean networks had “weekend family soap operas.” I started watching because it was on KBS America and regular mini-series were rarely shown.
KBS continues producing 50-episode weekend dramas because they are a reliable, culturally ingrained institution tailored for multigenerational viewing. These shows air in fixed evening slots and serve as communal family events across South Korea, driving consistently high television viewership. The “weekend family drama” has been a staple of Korean broadcasting since the 1980s. Families across South Korea traditionally gather to watch these shows together over dinner every Saturday and Sunday, making it an irreplaceable viewing habit. While a 50-episode run takes a long time to film, long-running family dramas utilize a more fixed, studio-bound production model. This is generally more cost-effective per episode than the high-budget, location-heavy miniseries format. Today, KBS does not produce the shows in-house. It contracts with a production company who assumes more budget risk of production costs or revenue shortfalls.
The weekender genre is a slow moving “family” drama with many characters, many story lines, problems between men and women, husband and wives, to mirror current society issues but fit into network core formula traits or tropes: the birth secret, the childhood crush, poor vs. rich, toxic office politics, makjang characters, amnesia and other health crisis, etc. Since weekenders are still filmed in the “live format” with scripts and changes done on a weekly basis, often just before airing, the network has more input and direction plot changes as the series runs its course (for good or ill). Recent weekenders have fallen into a rut of similar story lines and lack of character chemistry.
It has been a slow viewer decline for the KBS weekenders. The main demographic, women 40-60, used to command the remote so weekenders had a 40-50% ratings highs. OTT has become more active than in the past, access to the Internet is easier than in the past, and the current older generation is also exposed to a lot of mini-series and changing viewer habits. KBS has tried star writers which it concluded was “useless” in stopping readings declines. Reducing the number of episodes did not work. Even adding bigger, popular star leads have not stopped the downward trend. It took less than three years for the weekender’s 30% rating to to fall to the 20% peak viewership rating in prime time.
Why the decline? The format has become stagnant. The blueprint family drama appears to be set in stone with just different sets and actors walking through the same type of scripts and plodding plots. Even a creative start can be lost in direction changes trying to chase more viewer interest as what happened in the current weekender. There were at least 7…