Episode 8 of SBS drama 'Doctor X: The Era of the White Mafia' drew 15.6% of national households on Oct. 31. That is the second drop in a row from the series high of 19.5% in Episode 6, and this episode took on a residents' strike against a medical-school quota increase.
From 19.5% in Episode 6 to 15.6% in Episode 8
The show opened at 11.4% on Oct. 9, then climbed to 14.9%, 15.1% and 18.5%. After 17.5% for Episode 5, Episode 6 on Oct. 24 hit 19.5%, with a peak minute of 21.3%, within sight of 20%.
Episode 7 on Oct. 30 fell to 16.5%, and Episode 8 on Oct. 31 to 15.6%. That is 0.9 points below Episode 7 and 3.9 points below Episode 6, the other Saturday episode.
Episode 8 puts a doctors' strike on screen
The residents of the fictional Guseo University Hospital walk out against a medical-school quota increase, while Gye Su-jung (Kim Ji-won) works a 12-hour relay of surgeries to save a child cancer patient.
The episode sets the doctors who stay with patients against residents who say their work is being belittled.
The May 18 episode lit the fuse
Episode 6 spent most of its running time on the May 1980 Gwangju Uprising and featured a fictional former president recalling Chun Doo-hwan. That setting is not in the Japanese original.
A petition to halt the broadcast went up on the National Assembly's citizen petition site and passed the 100-supporter threshold on Oct. 24, moving to the review stage. The production team issued no separate statement.
Is the controversy the whole story?
Hard to say. The drama airs Friday and Saturday, and Saturday episodes usually score 2.0 to 3.5 points higher than the Friday before.
Episode 7 was only 1.0 point below Friday's Episode 5. Reports say the next Friday episode will show whether the Friday climb of 11.4%, 15.1% and 17.5% resumes.
