'Pung Hyang Go 2' Breaks Viewership Records with Yoo Jae-suk's Star Power

The second episode of the variety show 'Pung Hyang Go 2', featuring popular host Yoo Jae-suk, has achieved its highest ratings yet, with a nationwide household viewership of 2.0% and a 2049 target demographic rating of 1.1%.

Prior to its airing, ENA's Sunday variety show 'Pung Hyang Go 2' had been struggling, with a 2049 target demographic rating of 0.1% and a nationwide household rating of 0.4% over the past three months. However, the episode that aired on January 31st saw a significant increase, with ratings jumping approximately 10.7 times and 5.1 times respectively. Compared to the pre-broadcast meeting episode, which had a 2049 target rating of 0.4% and a nationwide household rating of 0.7%, the increase was nearly threefold.

The show's performance on YouTube is also noteworthy. The pre-meeting video on the 'Ddeun Ddeun' YouTube channel garnered 4.66 million views, the first episode reached 7.92 million views, and the second episode, released on January 31st at 9 AM, has already hit 4.71 million views as of February 2nd. This surpasses the early viewership trends of 'Pung Hyang Go 1', indicating that the existing fanbase has seamlessly transitioned to 'Pung Hyang Go 2', along with attracting new viewers.

Park Chul-min, head of ENA's programming center, stated, "The success of 'Pung Hyang Go 2' in terms of viewership is not just about numbers; it reflects the effectiveness of our cross-platform programming strategy, which considers changes in viewer content consumption and platform expansion." He added, "We plan to continue offering unique variety content through collaborations with various platforms, including web variety shows."

In the first two episodes of 'Pung Hyang Go 2', viewers saw Yoo Jae-suk, Lee Sung-min, Ji Seok-jin, and Yang Se-chan arrive in Vienna, Austria, and navigate their way to a hotel. The following day, they completed a morning tour and lunch, which was depicted in an engaging manner. The upcoming third episode, airing on February 8th, will show the four brothers facing a new challenge as they attempt to secure train tickets to Budapest, Hungary.

'Pung Hyang Go 2' is uploaded every Saturday at 9 AM on the 'Ddeun Ddeun' YouTube channel, with additional unseen footage airing on ENA the following Sunday at 7:50 PM.

Reporter: Jung Se-yoon, TenAsia yoon@tenasia.co.kr