”Spring of the Four Seasons” has a 0% audience rating despite the appearance of Lee HONG-KI (FTISLAND)? Will the revived ”Weekday TV Series” cut programming again?

The TV series production market is making various efforts to overcome the prolonged recession. Production companies are reducing risks by producing cost-effective TV series, while broadcasters are focusing on TV series production.
However, the prevailing opinion is that these attempts have yet to produce clear results in terms of viewer ratings or hot topics.
The atmosphere in the Korean TV series production industry has changed significantly before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
During this period, global online video service (OTT) companies such as Netflix achieved qualitative growth through major box office hits, but at the same time, the side effect was a sharp rise in production costs.
This was followed by further difficulties for the industry. On top of that, the advertising market also shrunk, and the structure in which it was difficult to make a profit by producing a TV series became entrenched.
Production companies are tightening their purse strings to create cost-effective
SBS is releasing a new series called "Spring" on Wednesdays, bringing back a weekday TV series for the first time in two years, while KBS is releasing a Monday-Tuesday TV series called "Spring".
Instead, they are planning to change their schedules by creating Wed-Thu TV Series. TvN and JTBC also revealed their weekday TV series schedules. Weekday TV series are relatively cheaper than weekends, when the demand for watching TV series is high.
If they can capture the target audience, they can expect a return on investment compared to productions with larger production costs and scale. However, they are currently not doing well.
SBS's "Spring of the Four Seasons - Our Season of Love" recorded the lowest viewership rating of 0.7% (Nielsen Korea/national household standard) for the second and third episodes, and KBS2Wed-ThuTV series "24-Hour Health Club"
The viewership rating for "Bang Bang" started at 1.8% for the first episode and dropped to 1.0% for the ninth episode. The 0% range is on the horizon. If the weekday TV series that was revived with great difficulty shows poor performance in terms of viewership rating and hot topicality, it will raise concerns in the industry.
The number of TV series on weekdays is growing. Some people are even speculating that weekday TV series will be abolished. Broadcasting companies are increasing the number of variety shows, which have lower production costs than TV series, and are considering increasing the number of OTs that have already been released.
MBC has already scheduled Disney+'s "Moving" and "Casino" in succession.
A TV series production company official said, "The industry is so tough that the competitive spirit is disappearing.
"I hope that whatever works they do well," he said, "If the TV series currently being broadcast do not perform well, programming and investment will shrink further, which will have a negative impact on the entire industry."
However, it seems unlikely that broadcasting companies will decide whether or not to invest solely on short-term results.
An insider noted, "Currently, the production of low-cost TV series is more about investment than immediate results."
Another source from the broadcasting company said, "With OTT now established, there is a trust that good content can be made any time, and the more difficult it is, the more we can make a breakthrough by steadily producing good works.
"I am confident that only by making various efforts to improve the quality can we ultimately create good works," he explained.