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[HanCinema's News] "The One and Only" Finishes Disappointing Run

The final two episodes of "The One and Only" aired on February 8th with disappointing ratings as expected of .664% and .6%. The preemption of the fifteenth episode of "The One and Only" on February 7th was unannounced, and not even related to the Olympics, as jTBC simply decided to replay the previous episode of a more popular musical competition show instead. This was an ignominious end for a television drama that has struggled ever since its debut.

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"The One and Only" didn't start with high expectations. Neither of its leads, Ahn Eun-jin or Kim Kyung-nam, are major stars, and the subject matter of hospice life was likewise not dynamic. Nevertheless, a promising start of 2.4% had collapsed to under .6% by the fourth episode and never really recovered. The drama received no help from jTBC either, as the cable network simply decided not to bother rebroadcasting any episodes during daytime, making it impossible for viewers to catch passing glances.

The failure of "The One and Only" is far from unprecedented. "IDOL: The Coup" last year did just as badly in the same late night Monday/Tuesday 11:00 PM timeslot. It's an open question whether any television drama can achieve strong ratings so late at night in this age of streaming. "Snowdrop" in the Saturday/Sunday timeslot only hovered in the 3% range, while "Artificial City" in the Wednesday/Thursday timeslot has had around 4% ratings.

There's also the confounding factor of the dramas' aesthetic quality- a highly subjective measure. "Forecasting Love and Weather" and "Thirty Nine" are both high profile February releases for jTBC, featuring returns from Park Min-young and Son Ye-jin respectively. But the same might have been said of Jung Hae-in of "Snowdrop" and Soo Ae of "Artificial City" as well. Whatever the cause, jTBC is getting increasingly deesperate for a big ratings win.

Written by William Schwartz

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"The One and Only" is directed by Oh Hyeon-jong, written by Moon Jung-min, and features Ahn Eun-jin, Kim Kyung-nam, Kang Ye-won, Joy, Go Doo-shim, Jang Hyun-sung. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/12/20~2022/02/08, Mon, Tue 23:00 on jTBC.

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