"Legend of the Blue Sea" ended on Wednesday, Jan. 25 with impressive ratings. But even though it aired on mainstream television, its ratings still did not surpass the ratings for the hit tvN drama, "Goblin."
"Legend of the Blue Sea" aired on SBS, a network that may be accessed by everyone who has a television set in Korea. It is not a cable network so there is no need to pay extra just to be able to watch the Lee Min Ho starrer.
"Goblin," on the other hand, aired on cable television. Which means that fewer viewers have access to it. Those who do not have cable television had to find another way to watch the K-drama series.
But even if this was the case, Soompi reported that "Legend of the Blue Sea" ended with a 17.9 percent rating on Wednesday night. "Goblin," on the other hand, ended with a massive 20.5 percent rating on Saturday, Jan. 21.
The creators of "Goblin" were also a bit concerned over the show's ratings because before episode 14, they decided to air an interim episode for fans. Some audiences were not happy with this decision because they had to wait for a few more days before watching the finale.
But doing this actually helped boost the show's ratings. A lot of the fans liked the interim episode so they got even more hooked to watching the two-part finale. Even though the ending of "Goblin" was not necessarily a happy one - Eun Tak passed away - fans were still drawn to watching the show until the end.
The ending of "Legend of the Blue Sea" was not a happy one either. There were deaths and broken hearts in the final episode. Still, over all, the show did pretty well on SBS.
[VIDEO] 01/25/17 its a happy ending #LegendOfTheBlueSea #Episode20 #LOTBSFinale