|
Are Koreans tiring of homemade TV programs and turning to international fare for variety? Some in the industry hope that the stellar ratings of "Desperate Housewives," on at 11:15 p.m. every Sunday from late July, are only the beginning of a boom for foreign productions.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the most popular programs on local terrestrial TV were foreign series. "Little House on the Prairie," "The Waltons," "The Six Million Dollar Man," "Wonderwoman", "V" and "MacGyver" are titles that trigger happy memories for many. It is only recently that such hits were supplanted by the locally made dramas that went on to launch the Korean Wave across Asia.
"Desperate Housewives" features four very different women against the backdrop of a wealthy American neighborhood. The plot hinges on attempts to solve the mysterious suicide of one housewife, with the show taking a barbed swipe at the American family that looks perfect on the outside but is rotten within. A TNS survey just one month after the start of the program showed viewer ratings of 7.4 percent -- a respectable figure given its late-night Sunday timeslot. Viewers seem unfazed by controversial elements like the wives' affairs. As the tastes of viewers diversify, so the audience's ability to absorb cultural shocks has broadened.
The KBS online bulletin board is swamped with posts from irate viewers demanding access to the show via video-on-demand. But KBS only has the broadcast rights and cannot provide VOD service. The cable channel station OCN, too, broadcasts show at midnight on Monday and Tuesday, with the different time slots between terrestrial and cable TV in themselves a development worth watching.
Four foreign series play on Korean terrestrial TV at the moment -- KBS2's "Blind Justice" (1:10 p.m. Saturday) and "Desperate Housewives," and MBC's "Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Series 5" (12:15 on Sunday night) and "24" (1:10 p.m. Saturday). The growing competition has done nothing to dampen the popularity of the programs, even as the two broadcasters schedule the shows in the same slots. Counting "Genghis Khan", which is being broadcast by KBS1 as a successor to the station's popular historical drama "The Immortal Yi Sun-shinĦħ, the number comes to five. In the recent past, scarcely more than one or two would be on air.
There are good reasons for the increase. One is higher supply as U.S. productions mushroom. A string of popular programs, including "CSI" produced by Hollywood blockbuster specialist Jerry Bruckheimer, Emmy-award winning series "Lost" and "Sex and the City" took the world by storm. "Desperate Housewives" is being or has been broadcast in 25 countries, with the second season starting in the U.S. on Monday.
Song Seong-geun of KBS says global trends change depending on whether the seven major U.S. broadcasters decide to emphasize movies or series. And at the LA Screening in May, he says, there were significantly more TV series than movies. Another reason for the dramatic growth in the number of foreign TV series on Korean TV is the sturdy demand base, where large groups of viewers know all about American hit series from the Internet and want to see for themselves.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
