Kim Tae-hee, will the 0% march save ENA?

Actress Kim Tae-hee will appear in the lead role with Lim Ji-yeon in the drama 'House with a Yard'. 'House with a Yard' is scheduled to air in June through ENA, a cable channel that gained fame by airing 'Weird Lawyer Woo Young-woo'. The industry's interest is whether viewers will flock back to ENA, which has low viewership ratings after the 'Woo Young-Woo Syndrome'.

On the 17th, Genie TV announced, “The drama ‘House with a Yard’ will be released for the first time through Genie TV, Genie TV Mobile, and ENA in June.” ‘House with a Yard’ is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by author Kim Jin-young.

‘A House with a Yard’ is a suspenseful family thriller that tells the story of two women who lead completely different lives due to a suspicious smell coming from their backyard. Kim Tae-hee and Lim Ji-yeon play Joo-ran and Sang-eun, respectively.

Joo-ran, played by Kim Tae-hee, lives a daily life that everyone envies, but is confused by the smell coming from the backyard. Lim Ji-yeon played the role of Sang-eun, a victim of domestic violence. He appears opposite the school violence perpetrator he played in the Netflix series 'The Glory'.

Kim Tae-hee appeared in the drama 'Hi Bye, Mama!' After three years, he chose ‘House with a Yard’ as his comeback work. Here, Lim Ji-yeon, who succeeded in transforming into a villain role in 'The Glory', joined to complete the female two-top line-up. Just by meeting two people, 'House with a Yard' has been attracting attention even before filming.

However, the arrangement of ‘house with a yard’ drifted. Then, I was selected by ENA. ENA was relaunched by skyTV and introduced ‘Weird Lawyer Woo Young-woo (hereinafter referred to as Woo Young-woo)’ last year. 'Woo Young-Woo' started with a viewership rating of 0.9% and enjoyed the syndrome effect by recording the highest rating of 17.5%.

'Woo Young-woo' was recently named as a finalist for the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards in eight categories, including Best Picture, Best Directing, and Best Female Actor in the TV category announced by the Baeksang Arts Awards Secretariat. However, the 'Wooyoungwoo' syndrome and ENA's presence disappeared as the drama ended.

EAN sought changes with the policy of strengthening brand value after the end of 'Woo Young-woo'. Starting with the drama 'Good Job' starring Jung Il-woo and Kwon Yuri, Choi Si-won and Lee Da-hee's 'Frozen Dating', Chae Jong-hyeop and Seo Eun-soo's 'Unlock the Boss', Kang So-ra and Jang Seung-jo's 'Can I Be Someone Else', Im Si-wan and Seolhyun's 'I Don't Want to Do Anything', Yoon Chan-young's Room. Minah performed ‘Delivery Man’, etc.

As part of strengthening the strategy, a series of dramas were aired aggressively, but viewership ratings and topicality were minimal. Even when compared to ‘Woo Young-woo’, there is a big difference in numbers. 'Wooyoungwoo' started with a viewership rating of 0.9% and peaked at 17.5%. It's like creating something from nothing. Other dramas did not avoid poor viewer ratings. It ranged from 0% to a maximum of 3%. In fact, they did not disclose the viewership ratings.

‘House with a Yard’ is the comeback work of Kim Tae-hee, one of the trio known as the ‘Tae-hye Ji (Kim Tae-hee, Song Hye-kyo, Jeon Ji-hyun) troika. The key point to watch is what type of acting Kim Tae-hee, who has always focused on raising children, will show with Lim Ji-yeon, and how well viewers will respond to that acting. ENA's viewer rating problem is a problem that will naturally follow.

Kang Min-kyung, Ten Asia reporter kkk39@tenasia.co.kr