‘Uncontrollably Fond’ in China: 40 million paid views so far

In South Korea, the new KBS2 drama “Uncontrollably Fond” may not have lived up to expectations in the opening week, raking in mixed reviews. But in China, it is a totally different story: 40 million paid views and counting.

Numbers don’t lie and the Chinese are indeed excited about the drama that stars Kim Woo-bin, Bae Suzy, Im Joo-hwan, and Im Joo-eun.

It was broadcast in Korea and China simultaneously.

In China, the Wednesday-Thursday drama is exclusively aired on video streaming site Youku Tudou and open to users who are willing to pay to watch. So far, it has accumulated over 40 million views for the first and second episodes, Yonhap quoted the PR company 3HW. “On the first day of broadcast, there was an overflow of traffic and the server of Youku crashed,” an official from the company said. “Also, real-time replies from viewers overflowed that they even interfered with the screen.”

On Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, the drama’s search results shot up to 17.6 billion from 500 million after the first episode ended, demonstrating a great interest in the drama among Chinese fans.

It was touted to be the next “Descendants of the Sun” and a huge hype was created before its release through a series of trailers and promos.

“Uncontrollably Fond” premiered on July 6, with a nationwide viewership rating of 12.5 percent, according to Nielsen Korea. It is competing with medical-themed romantic drama “Doctors” for the top slot.