Jeong Deok Hyeon, a pop culture critic and one of the seven judges for the 2024 Baeksang Arts Awards in the television category, revealed the reason behind Kim Ji Won not being nominated at the 60th Baeksang Arts Awards.
Jeong Deok Hyeon said, “Recently, this issue has come up again. In the case of ‘Queen of Tears‘, people were saying, ‘Huh? Kim Ji Won wasn’t even nominated?’ Do you know why that happened?”
Jeong Deok Hyeon explained, “When the initial evaluation round began, it was quite early. At that time, ‘Queen of Tears‘ hadn’t even started airing yet. So there was a lot of discussion on whether the drama should even be considered. It eventually made it to the second round of evaluation, but the score wasn’t high. There’s actually a standard that if a certain percentage of a drama has been aired, it qualifies for nomination. However, since the judges hadn’t seen the full content of the series (as ‘Queen of Tears‘ hadn’t finished airing), it made it difficult to assess properly. We did watch the available episodes and some videos, and at that point, the male lead’s performance stood out more. Kim Ji Won hadn’t truly shined yet. Her acting was still considered limited at that time. That’s why she wasn’t nominated.”
Jeong Deok Hyeon continued, “We explained all of this to Kim Ji Won’s agency, and she herself listened and accepted it. But the public didn’t know, so they criticized us, ‘How could Baeksang do this?’”
Jeong Deok Hyeon added, “But to be honest, with awards like these, timing and a bit of luck are involved. For instance, if Baeksang were held in May or June, and the drama had already finished airing by then, the chances of being nominated would be higher. Newer dramas tend to be remembered more easily.”
