The King and I (Korean: 왕과 나) is a South Korean historical series that aired on SBS from August 27, 2007 to April 1, 2008 on Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55.[1][2] Starring Oh Man-seok, Koo Hye-sun, and Go Joo-won, the series was moderately successful, with its ratings peak at 25%.
| The King and I | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster
| |
| Genre | Historical |
| Written by | Yoo Dong-yoon |
| Directed by |
|
| Starring |
|
| Composer | Oh Joon-sung |
| Country of origin | South Korea |
| No. of episodes | 63 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Yoon Young-mook (SBS) |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55 (KST) |
| Production companies | Olive 9 Co. Ltd. SBS PD |
| Original release | |
| Network | SBS TV |
| Release | August 27, 2007 (2007-08-27) – April 1, 2008 (2008-04-01) |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 왕과 나 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 王과 나 |
| Revised Romanization | Wanggwa na |
| McCune–Reischauer | Wanggwa na |
The King and I revolves around the life of Kim Cheo-sun, considered the best eunuch attendant who lived during the Joseon Dynasty.[3]
Cheo-sun secretly loves his childhood friend So-hwa, but he cannot confess his love because of their difference in social class. Eventually, when So-hwa becomes betrothed to King Seongjong, he castrates himself and enters the palace as an eunuch, determined to watch over and protect her.
Initially the King's concubine, So-hwa is later elevated to the rank of Queen. But she becomes a pawn of the intense strife among warring political factions, and is stripped of her title and cast out of the palace in disgrace. Despite Cheo-sun's attempts to help her, she is sentenced to death. Cheo-sun carries out his orders by handing her the bowl of poison and he watches as the woman he loved all his life dies before his eyes.[4] After her death, he looks after her son, Prince Yeonsan.
Park Sang-min was originally cast as King Seongjong, but had to back out. He was replaced by Go Joo-won.
Yeo Woon-kye was supposed to portray So-gwi but had to quit for health reasons, even though she had already filmed a few episodes. Her replacement was Kim Soo-mi.
Reportedly enraged because the scripts were routinely turned in late, resulting in exhaustion for the actors in the cast, Jeon In-hwa's husband Yoo Dong-geun assaulted two producers on set on December 29, 2007. He later apologized for the incident.[6][7]
The King and I performed moderately well, getting ratings in the 20%–25% range and ranking in the top 10. However, in late January 2008, due to competition from MBC's Yi San, ratings fell to the mid-tens, barely cracking the Top 20 in Korea.[8]
SBS first extended the episodes from the originally planned 50 to 67, then back to 61 because of bad ratings, and finally to 63.[9]
| Date | Episode | Nationwide | Seoul |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-08-27 | 1 | 14.4 (7th) | 14.8 (6th) |
| 2007-08-28 | 2 | 18.8 (3rd) | 19.7 (3rd) |
| 2007-09-03 | 3 | 22.9 (2nd) | 24.9 (1st) |
| 2007-09-04 | 4 | 25.8 (1st) | 27.1 (1st) |
| 2007-09-10 | 5 | 22.3 (2nd) | 23.3 (2nd) |
| 2007-09-11 | 6 | 21.0 (2nd) | 22.0 (2nd) |
| 2007-09-17 | 7 | 25.6 (2nd) | 26.5 (1st) |
| 2007-09-18 | 8 | 23.1 (2nd) | 24.2 (2nd) |
| 2007-09-24 | 9 | 12.9 (4th) | 13.6 (4th) |
| 2007-09-24 | 10 | 19.8 (1st) | 20.1 (1st) |
| 2007-10-01 | 11 | 23.3 (2nd) | 23.4 (2nd) |
| 2007-10-02 | 12 | 24.0 (2nd) | 23.6 (2nd) |
| 2007-10-08 | 13 | 22.0 (2nd) | 22.7 (2nd) |
| 2007-10-09 | 14 | 23.3 (2nd) | 24.2 (2nd) |
| 2007-10-15 | 15 | 22.4 (2nd) | 23.4 (2nd) |
| 2007-10-16 | 16 | 23.5 (2nd) | 24.6 (2nd) |
| 2007-10-22 | 17 | 23.1 (2nd) | 24.5 (2nd) |
| 2007-10-23 | 18 | 24.1 (3rd) | 25.5 (3rd) |
| 2007-10-29 | 19 | 26.0 (2nd) | 26.5 (2nd) |
| 2007-10-30 | 20 | 22.2 (2nd) | 22.3 (3rd) |
| 2007-11-05 | 21 | 21.8 (2nd) | 23.1 (3rd) |
| 2007-11-06 | 22 | 22.9 (2nd) | 24.4 (2nd) |
| 2007-11-12 | 23 | 20.5 (3rd) | 21.4 (3rd) |
| 2007-11-13 | 24 | 22.6 (3rd) | 23.6 (3rd) |
| 2007-11-19 | 25 | 19.7 (5th) | 20.6 (4th) |
| 2007-11-20 | 26 | 20.8 (4th) | 21.5 (4th) |
| 2007-11-26 | 27 | 21.3 (4th) | 22.1 (3rd) |
| 2007-11-27 | 28 | 21.0 (3rd) | 21.1 (3rd) |
| 2007-12-03 | 29 | 20.0 (3rd) | 19.6 (4th) |
| 2007-12-04 | 30 | 20.2 (5th) | 19.9 (4th) |
| 2007-12-10 | 31 | 19.2 (5th) | 19.2 (5th) |
| 2007-12-11 | 32 | 24.8 (1st) | 25.4 (2nd) |
| 2007-12-17 | 33 | 17.0 (6th) | 17.4 (6th) |
| 2007-12-18 | 34 | 16.1 (6th) | 15.6 (6th) |
| 2007-12-24 | 35 | 13.2 (8th) | 12.7 (8th) |
| 2007-12-25 | 36 | 16.0 (6th) | 15.7 (6th) |
| 2008-01-01 | 37 | 15.9 (7th) | 15.6 (7th) |
| 2008-01-07 | 38 | 15.1 (6th) | 14.8 (6th) |
| 2008-01-08 | 39 | 15.0 (7th) | 15.1 (7th) |
| 2008-01-14 | 40 | 15.0 (7th) | 15.0 (8th) |
| 2008-01-15 | 41 | 15.6 (6th) | 15.6 (8th) |
| 2008-01-21 | 42 | 14.5 (8th) | 13.9 (8th) |
| 2008-01-22 | 43 | 15.6 (8th) | 15.5 (8th) |
| 2008-01-28 | 44 | 14.5 (8th) | 13.5 (9th) |
| 2008-01-29 | 45 | 14.8 (8th) | 14.5 (9th) |
| 2008-02-04 | 46 | 12.9 (10th) | 11.5 (11th) |
| 2008-02-05 | 47 | 16.7 (6th) | 16.1 (6th) |
| 2008-02-11 | 48 | 15.0 (8th) | 14.5 (9th) |
| 2008-02-12 | 49 | 14.3 (8th) | 14.0 (10th) |
| 2008-02-18 | 50 | 13.6 (10th) | 12.9 (11th) |
| 2008-02-19 | 51 | 16.6 (7th) | 15.9 (8th) |
| 2008-02-25 | 52 | 14.7 (7th) | 14.3 (8th) |
| 2008-02-26 | 53 | 19.5 (5th) | 19.2 (6th) |
| 2008-03-03 | 54 | 17.0 (6th) | 16.8 (6th) |
| 2008-03-04 | 55 | 17.9 (6th) | 17.5 (6th) |
| 2008-03-10 | 56 | 15.5 (6th) | 15.2 (6th) |
| 2008-03-11 | 57 | 15.7 (6th) | 15.6 (6th) |
| 2008-03-17 | 58 | 14.9 (6th) | 14.8 (6th) |
| 2008-03-18 | 59 | 14.9 (6th) | 14.0 (7th) |
| 2008-03-24 | 60 | 13.9 (7th) | 13.0 (9th) |
| 2008-03-25 | 61 | 16.1 (6th) | 15.7 (6th) |
| 2008-03-31 | 62 | 17.2 (6th) | 16.7 (7th) |
| 2008-04-01 | 63 | 19.7 (5th) | 18.9 (6th) |
| Average | - | - | |
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