tvN Show “Apartment 404” Sees Consistent Decline In Viewership Despite A Star Cast

Ever since tvN’s new entertainment show Apartment 404 was announced, it has caused a significant buzz among K-Entertainment enthusiasts, thanks to its star cast. Apart from Korea’s most-beloved MC, Yoo Jae Suk, the show boasts other top entertainers on its permanent cast, including BLACKPINK member Jennie.

However, it appears that the initial hype around the show has failed to translate into viewership, as the show seems to be suffering from a declining rate of viewers in South Korea.

A netizen recently shared the viewership ratings of all three episodes released so far, which showed a steady decrease. The ratings provided by Nielsen Korea showed that the first episode, aired on February 23, garnered a 2.7% viewership, which went down to 2.1% for the second one (March 1), and reached 1.7% for the third (March 8).

The post went viral on the popular online community TheQoo, drawing various reactions from netizens. Some were surprised since they found the show enjoyable. However, most people felt that the show’s content was “boring,” and the declining viewership also reflected the ongoing struggle of entertainment shows in general to secure a decent audience in South Korea.

• “It was kind of boring TT.”
• “It’s just not fun.”
• “I watched it just for the sake of it, and it wasn’t funny…It was fun when they did it once in a while on ‘Running Man,’ but these spy and identity reveal games being played again and again has made it boring.”
• “I like to watch it while eating, it’s fun for me.”
• “Even tvN is struggling with entertainment shows, I see. These days, even if you have all kinds of celebrities on popular entertainment shows, seeing how they only get 1-2% makes me realize it’s getting tough in that field.”
• “It was fun for me though? Even if I miss the real-time airing, I watch the re-runs. I hope they do this show for a long time.”
• “It’s really boring. The format is too poorly constructed to work in today’s day and age. I was going to watch it because I liked the cast but I gave up after watching episode 1.”