Last week, Lee Joon-Gi, who plays fourth prince Wang So, thanked his fans for achieving 1 billion viewers in China as reported by Soompi.
One of the reason of its popularity loss in Korea probably because the writer diluted the drama by complicating a triangle love story among Hae Soo, prince Wang So and prince Wang Wook.
In the novel, fourth prince Wang So and eight prince Wang Wook decided to marry their children to form alliance in an effort to strengthen the kingdom. Many fans who have read the novel may decide to stop watching the drama after seeing the drama spent too much time to build the triangle love story.
The drama was an adaption of Chinese novel "Scarlet Heart" written by the writer Tong Hua and published in 2005. Prior to the Korean adaption, Chinese TV Hunan Broadcasting System (HBS) adapted the novel into TV series in 2011. In both Chinese versions, the event happened in the Qing Dynasty era.
As reported by KPop Herald, "Scarlet Heart Ryeo" was surpassed by the new MBC drama "Woman with a Suitcase." In the daily Nielsen Korea rating on Sept. 27, "Scarlet Heart Ryeo" only scored 7.5 percent of viewership rating, while "Woman with a Suitcase" garnered 8.4 percent.
Meanwhile in the TnMS rating on the same day, "Scarlet Heart Ryeo" Episode 11 managed to climb 0.1 percent to 6.5 percent from the previous day. However the drama is also surpassed by "Woman with a Suitcase" and KBS talk show "Morning Forum" with 7.2 percent. "Scarlet Heart Ryeo" is still in the last position of Top 20 show on Tuesday, Sept. 27
Its original main competitor "Moonlight Drawn By The Clouds" stood strong in second position in Nielsen Korea with 21.0 percent and third position in TnMS with 18.6 percent. Can "Scarlet Heart Ryeo" win back the heart of Korean audience after a continuous drop in rating?
