Korean Cuc (Hangul: 한국드라마), k-drama for short, refers to televised dramas, in a miniseries format, produced in South Korea. Many of these dramas have become popular throughout Asia, with growing interest in other parts of the world. K-dramas have contributed to the general phenomenon of the Korean wave, known as Hallyu (Hangul: 한류), and also "DramaFever" in some countries.[1] King of Baking, Kim Takgu received over 50% of ratings, while Moon Embracing the Sun received over 40%.Flagship Korean dramas typically run from 16 to 20 episodes. Occasionally, historical epics stretch for 50 to 100 episodes, in a single season. Sometimes, if a show is popular, networks extend them. Goong in 2006, for example, was extended from 20 to 24 episodes. Since each episode usually runs for about 60 minutes, one of the shorter 16-episode K-dramas might consume about 960 minutes of air-time. In comparison, BBC's 1995 Pride and Prejudice takes 330 minutes. The American mini-series Lonesome Dove takes 384 minutes and Noble House takes 376 minutes.
The broadcast time for flagship dramas is 22:00 to 23:00, with episodes on two consecutive nights: Mondays and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and weekends. Different dramas appear on each of the nationwide networks, Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS), Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and on the cable channels, Joongang Tongyang Broadcasting Company (jTBC), Channel A, tvN, and Orion Cinema Network (OCN).
The 19:00 to 20:00 evening time slot is usually for daily dramas that run from Monday through Friday, and weekends. Dramas in these slots are in the telenovella format, rarely running over 200 episodes. Unlike the American soap operas, these daily dramas are not also scheduled during the day-time. Instead, the day-time schedule often includes reruns of the flagship dramas. The night-time dailies can achieve very high ratings. For example, the evening series Temptation of a Wife peaked at 40.6%, according to TNS Korea.[2]
Korean dramas have also spread overseas with several on demand streaming services which legally license Korean dramas. For example, the company DramaFever, which was founded in 2009 during the Hallyu Wave, reports a catalog of over 13,000 episodes.
