"I don't fail." From that one line, a drama went from 11.4% on opening night to 18.5% by episode 4. Kim Ji-won's SBS Friday-Saturday drama 'Doctor X: Age of the White Mafia' also took No. 1 on Netflix's Global Top 10 for non-English shows.
Ratings up seven points in four episodes
Nielsen Korea nationwide: 11.4% for episode 1, 14.9% for episode 2, 15.1% for episode 3, 18.5% for episode 4. Every episode beat the last. With the premiere on Oct. 9, that happened in under two weeks.
It airs first in SBS's Friday-Saturday slot and is also on Netflix.
9.9 million hours in week one
In the Global Top 10 Netflix announced on Oct. 14 for Oct. 5-11, it ranked No. 1 among non-English shows, with 9.9 million viewing hours and 4.6 million views in its first week.
It is Studio Dragon's tenth Netflix global No. 1, and the fifth straight year since 'The Glory' in 2022.
A Japanese original, Korean-style medical noir
The source is TV Asahi's 'Doctor-X: Surgeon Daimon Michiko', which began in 2012 and ran seven seasons through 2021. In Korea the lead is surgeon Gye Su-jeong, played by Kim Ji-won in her first solo lead.
Son Hyun-joo, Lee Jung-eun and Kim Woo-seok co-star. The story draws on Korean medical issues such as the law on CCTV in operating rooms and the strike over medical school quotas.
The medical-accuracy row came too
A viewer who says he is an orthopedic surgeon asked the Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission on Oct. 13 to review the show, saying surgery scenes differ from real clinical practice. He accepts dramatic exaggeration but worries it could plant wrong ideas.
Ratings kept rising and the global ranking followed.
What to watch next
Studio Dragon says Noh Hee-kyung's 'Slowly and Intensely' and Kim Woo-bin's 'Gift' will arrive within the year.
'Doctor X' continues on SBS and Netflix. The official trailer is on Netflix Korea's channel.
