Hit K-Drama “The King’s Affection” Ends With Its Highest Ratings Yet

This year produced some very popular K-Dramas, and one of them was undoubtedly KBS‘s The King’s Affection. Starring SF9‘s Rowoon and Park Eun Bin, The King’s Affection puts a spin on the classic period romance by introducing a female lead character who lives as a man—who lives as the Crown Prince Lee Hwi, in fact.

Things get interesting when Rowoon’s Jung Ji Un begins to fall in love with her, not knowing that Crown Prince Lee Hwi is actually a woman. The drama has now come to a close, with its final episode airing on December 14.

Impressively, The King’s Affection managed not only to maintain a high level of popularity throughout its run, but to even end with the show’s highest ratings yet. Its previous record had reached 10 percent viewership for its 13th episode, but the finale, which was the 20th episode of the show, reached up to 12.1 percent.

This goes to show how well-received The King’s Affection has been. Period romances are fan-favorites, and this year also saw similar success with Mr. Queen, which portrayed a male character who goes back in time and ends up in the body of Queen Cheorin from the Joseon period. The success of these shows that there could be room for similar dramas in the future!