‘Uncontrollably Fond’ or ‘Doctors,’ who is the winner?

It seems, “Uncontrollably Fond” had indeed had a fiery start overpowering the “Doctors” drama.

After creating super-huge hype and anticipation, it premiered on KBS2 TV on July 6 and drew mixed reviews. We thought the Monday–Tuesday “Doctors” drama will be the most-popular, after the “Descendants of the Sun” that was a record-breaker earlier this year. But numbers don’t lie. ‘Uncontrollably Fond” scored 289.1 points on the Content Power Index (CPI) for the week of July 4-10, topping the chart developed by entertainment company CJ E&M and media ratings company Nielsen Korea, Yonhap reported.

The CPI measures the popularity of TV shows based on the number of views of related news stories, keyword searches and mentions on social media.

Below this Wednesday-Thursday drama starring two of South Korea’s most-revered heartthrobs was the “Doctors” serial occupying the second place in the popularity chart with 267.5 points.

“Uncontrollably Fond” was entirely pre-filmed and is being broadcast simultaneously in South Korea and China.

“Uncontrollably Fond” revolves around the love story of Shin Joon-young, played by Kim Woo-bin, and No Eul played by Bae Suzy.

“Uncontrollably Fond” kicked off in the present day, where Shin Joon-young (Kim Woo-bin) and No Eul (Suzy), who already knew each other, accidentally met again. The second episode, however, took the viewers back to their high school days when they first met. The third episode revolved around their breakup, and the fourth brought viewers back to the current day.

Both the dramas, aired on different days of the week, are trying their best through several promotional means to attain the success that “Descendants of the Sun” reached earlier this year.

In China, “Uncontrollably Fond” is exclusively aired on video streaming site Youku Tudou and open to users who are willing to pay to watch. It had accumulated over 40 million views for the first and second episodes, it was reported.

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.