Ahn Hyo Seop's 'Office Blind Date' Global Hit

SBS drama "Sold Out Tomorrow" (tentatively titled "Omaejin"), starring Ahn Hyo-seop, is receiving mixed reactions both domestically and internationally. While anticipation was high for Ahn Hyo-seop's return to acting in a project that was expected to gain global popularity through Netflix, domestic viewership ratings have shown somewhat sluggish performance.

"Omaejin" is a romantic comedy drama that tells the story of Matthew Lee (played by Ahn Hyo-seop), a perfectionist farmer, and Dam Ye-jin (played by Chae Won-bin), a sell-out show host, who become entangled through a cosmetics ingredient contract.

The drama is receiving a strong response in the global market. In its first week of broadcast, it recorded 4.7 million viewing hours according to Netflix's Top 10 data, ranking first in the non-English TV shows category, and topped the charts in eight countries, including Taiwan and seven countries in the Americas. In its second week of airing, it continued its popularity by ranking sixth globally on Netflix's TV shows list.

On the other hand, domestic viewership ratings are not meeting expectations. The drama started with 3.3% for its first episode but dropped to 2.7% by the fourth episode. This is about 3% lower than the previous drama in the same time slot. One analysis suggests that the drama's "healing" theme is somewhat out of sync with the viewing patterns of the main demographic for recent TV dramas.

The drama depicts a story of a man and a woman with trauma in the city who meet and heal in the countryside. However, by portraying the concerns that young people can relate to in a simple tone, it is losing some of its audience to major variety shows airing at the same time.