Perfect Crown (also known as Wife of a 21st Century Grand Prince) has already become huge just two episodes into its run. The drama is getting a lot of buzz due to its lead pair, Byeon Woo Seok and IU.
The unique constitutional monarchy romance has seen its viewership surge dramatically. Its second episode crossed double-digit and dominated all competitors in its time slot.
Perfect Crown, which premiered on April 10, opened with a strong nationwide viewership rating of 7.8%. By Episode 2 on April 11, viewership jumped to 10.1% in the metropolitan area and 9.5% nationwide. According to Nielsen Korea, it ranked first in its time slot.
This is a 3.4 percentage point increase over the 4.4% peak and premiere ratings of the previous drama in the slot, In Your Radiant Season. It also earned a 5.3% rating among the key 20-54 age group (a very important measure for TV channels) and ranked first overall on Saturday.
Furthermore, the episode’s peak moment featured IU’s character receiving an award and a tense meeting with Byeon Woo Seok’s character. That particular scene received a per-minute peak rating of 11.1%. People in the industry now expect the drama to go over 15% in the coming weeks.
Perfect Crown takes place in an alternate version of South Korea where a 21st-century constitutional monarchy still exists. The story follows Sung Hee Joo, played by idol-actress IU. She is a rich chaebol heiress and CEO who seems to have everything: beauty, brains, and huge wealth, but is not accepted by society due to being an illegitimate child. She becomes interested in Grand Prince Lee Yi An, played by Byeon Woo Seok. Even though he comes from royal blood, he is often sad and not allowed to truly own or chase anything he wants.
In the second episode, the romance moves forward very quickly. Hee Joo was flatly rejected by Grand Prince Lee Yi An, who said his dream is to have a love marriage. Despite the rejection, Hee Joo relentlessly pursues him.
She follows him to movie theaters, chases him down on the road, and just outright refuses to take “I want a love marriage” for an answer.
After a chaotic hotel scandal made the front page (classic K-drama misunderstanding) and she was painted as his secret lover by the press. He finally gave her that contract marriage and Byeon Woo Seok tells IU to “prepare to become the Grand Prince’s wife.”
The script is written by Yoo Ji Won, her work won the Excellence Award in the Long-form Series category at the 2022 MBC Drama Screenplay Contest. The direction is led by Park Joon Hwa, who helmed hit series like tvN’s Alchemy of Souls and What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim.
Even before it aired, the drama was already a big success. IU’s acting record and Byeon Woo Seok’s meteoric rise to fame after Lovely Runner created huge expectations. Two weeks before the premiere, it topped the FUNdex TV-OTT drama buzz rankings, a first for a yet-to-air drama.
The third episode is set to air on Friday, April 17 at 9:50 PM (KST), and will also be available for streaming on Disney+.
