Premiering on March 31, tvN’s Monday-Tuesday drama “The Divorce Insurance” (written by Lee Tae-yoon, directed by Lee Won-suk and Choi Bo-kyung) is a romantic comedy set in an insurance company’s innovative product development team that introduces the novel concept of “divorce insurance”. Leading the show is actor Lee Dong-wook as Noh Ki-jun, who proposes the idea of happiness-guaranteed divorce insurance.
While the show debuted with a respectable 3.2% nationwide rating (Nielsen Korea), it dropped to 2.4% in the second episode. The third episode, which aired on April 7, fell to 2.0%, and the fourth episode plummeted further to a shocking 1.4%, marking the show’s lowest ratings yet.
This marks the first time in over two years that a tvN Monday-Tuesday drama has dipped into the 1% range since “A Bloody Lucky Day” in 2023. However, considering that “A Bloody Lucky Day” was released simultaneously on TV and streaming platform TVING, the last purely tvN drama to perform this poorly was “Mental Coach Jegal”. Regardless, “The Divorce Insurance” hitting the 1% mark is a major blow.
This isn’t the first trouble for tvN Monday-Tuesday dramas this year. “The Queen Who Crowns”, the year’s first Monday-Tuesday drama, peaked at 6.6% and dipped to a low of 3.6%. While not a breakout hit, it benefited from simultaneous release on TV and TVING, topping streaming charts and contributing to a seemingly successful dual-distribution strategy.
However, the TVING version, rated 19+, included exposure scenes that were criticized as gratuitous. The controversy deepened when claims arose that some actors were not properly consulted, and that face-swapping via CG on body doubles bordered on deepfake-like technology.
Its successor “My Dearest Nemesis” also failed to make an impact. It started with a modest 3.5%, briefly peaked at 5.1%, but declined thereafter, averaging just 4.2%. The weakened competitiveness of Monday-Tuesday dramas became clear.
tvN tried to boost “The Divorce Insurance” with a promotional special titled “Divorce Insurance: Rank Battle”, and featured actress Jo Bo-ah’s guest appearance to reunite with Lee Dong-wook for the first time since “Tale of the Nine Tailed”. Despite the efforts, ratings fell to 2% and below.
More alarming is the collapse of weekend dramas. The high-budget sci-fi romance “When the Stars Gossip”, with a massive production cost of 50 billion KRW, ended with ratings between 1.7% and 3.9%. Its follow-up “The Potato Lab” hit an abysmal 1.1%—the lowest ever in tvN weekend drama history. Once the pride of the network, the weekend primetime slot has now become a liability.
The fact that “The Divorce Insurance” has joined this downward trend only adds to tvN’s woes. Still, as a 12-episode series, the show hasn’t hit the halfway point. There’s a chance for recovery, and whether “The Divorce Insurance” can rise from this slump and lead a tvN drama revival in 2025 remains to be seen.
