'She Would Never Know' ends with disappointing viewership ratings

JTBC's romance series “She Would Never Know” ended with a 1.7 percent viewership rating on Tuesday. Courtesy of JTBC

By Lee Gyu-lee

JTBC's romance series “She Would Never Know,” starring Rowoon and Won Jin-a, has ended its broadcast run with rather disappointing ratings.

The last episode of the series, Tuesday, racked up a 1.7 percent viewership rating, just 0.2 percentage point higher than its lowest-rating episode. Since starting off at 2 percent on Jan. 18, its ratings have continued to slip.

Based on the webcomic of the same name, the story revolved around two employees at a cosmetics company's marketing department: rookie employee Chae Hyun-seung (Rowoon) who starts to develop feelings for his superior Yoon Song-ah (Won) who is skeptical about dating younger guys.

The two eventually start dating but break up from their long-distance relationship before reuniting in the final episode.

The cliche-ridden plot apparently fell short of attracting viewers, many of whom turned to other TV dramas that air around the same time such as “River Where the Moon Rises” and “L.U.C.A.: The Beginning.”

Despite the series' disappointing ratings, its lead actors expressed appreciation to the production staff.

“I thank all the staff, including the director, writer, who have worked hard on the set together. Thanks to them it was such a pleasure shooting (this series),” Rowoon said through his agency FNC Entertainment Wednesday. “I have spent a lot of time studying and understanding the character Hyun-sung … As I was playing Hyun-sung, I realized I still have a lot to learn, which made me look back on my acting and work harder.”

Won also thanked the team, saying that working on this series was “refreshing and fun.”

“We all worked on the same level to navigate ways to make the series better… the process of working together to understand the piece and its characters was really fun and refreshing,” she said through her agency Yooborn Company.

Noting that she doesn't always “expect to have high ratings” when she chooses a project, she said: “I just wish people would see the series worth revisiting even after its end. In that sense, I hope the character Song-ah will linger in the minds of viewers for a long, long time.”