What is SBS airing instead of ‘The Legend of the Blue Sea’ Episode 14 on Dec. 29, 2016? (Photo : YouTube/afreennisa mohammad)
The growing popularity of "The Legend of the Blue Sea" catapulted Lee Min-Ho and Jun Ji-Hyun to the top spot of a brand reputation chart. The two lead stars ranked first and second for brand power among Korean actors.
"The Legend of the Blue Sea" stars were both recognized by the Korean Business Research Institute as celebrities with the highest brand reputations for the month of December. It is based on 33,196,577 pieces of data from Nov. 15 to Dec. 16, according to local newsoutlet Naver.
Jun came in first place with a total brand reputation score of 9,570,099, which is a 61.48 percent increase from her November rankings. Tailing her in second was Lee, whose total brand value was 5,467,926. It also included Lee Soo-Kyung, Yoo Yeon Seok and Han Suk Kyu in its top five list.
Jun and Lee have enjoyed a resurgence in their popularity ever since "The Legend of the Blue Sea" hit the airwaves on Nov. 16. The SBS drama has managed to secure the top spot in the Wednesday-Thursday ratings battle.
"We'd like to thank the countless viewers both within and beyond Korea for their love," a representative from the SBS drama told Soompi. "Thanks to your love and support, we are able to film warmly even in this cold winter. We hope you will continue to show us support in the future."
However, "The Legend of the Blue Sea" has been slammed by several critics over plagiarism claims. The 20-episode drama was recently accused of copying parts of its storyline from a Korean scriptwriter named Park.
It came to light when Park took to the drama's official website on Dec. 14, Wednesday and introduced herself as the writer behind "The Legend of Hae Wol Sea: Pearly Shells." She claimed many of the incidents portrayed in the SBS drama are fundamentally the same as that of her work.
Though she demanded an apology from show's writer Park Ji-Eun, Park said she does not want to call it plagiarism. She clarified that such claims are just an analysis of the similar parts, but never she said it was copied entirety.
Watch Jun and Lee as Shim Chung and Heo Joon-Jae in SBS' "The Legend of the Blue Sea" here:
