Korean drama
Korean drama, also known as K-drama and Koreanovela, is a Korean-language television show made in South Korea. These shows began to be produced around the early 1960s, but were mostly consumed domestically until the rise of the Korean Wave in the 1990s. They have since achieved significant international popularity, with millions of viewers across the world.
Beginning around the 1970s, more and more households in South Korea owned televisions. Programs were often produced on low budgets and were mostly consumed domestically. The industry significantly developed in the 1980s, after the spread of color television. Beginning in the early 1990s, several Korean dramas began achieving significant international popularity, primarily in China and Japan. In addition, South Korean popular music and films began seeing similar successes, which gave rise to rapid international adoption of South Korean media in a phenomenon commonly called the Korean Wave. In the following decades, viewership spread throughout the globe. Rapid growth continued into the 2010s, with the rise in online streaming. Around this period, the American video streaming company Netflix took an interest in the phenomenon, and began releasing Korean dramas on its platform, as well as creating and funding ones. This culminated in the release of the 2021 Squid Game, which was watched by more than 142 million households in its first four weeks. In 2022, Netflix reported that 60 percent of its 221 million subscribers had watched a Korean program in the last year, and in April 2023, it announced that it would invest US$2.5 billion in the industry.
The success of Korean dramas has had a significant economic impact on South Korea. In 2022, US$561 million of Korean television content was sold abroad, which was a 30% increase from the previous year, surpassing those of South Korea's major export items such as secondary batteries and electric vehicles. The industry also employs tens of thousands of people. Korean dramas have also been cited as a motivation for tourists to visit the country.
History
Beginnings and early years
Radio broadcasting, including the broadcasting of radio dramas in Korea, began in 1927 under Japanese rule, with most programming in Japanese and around 30% in Korean. After the Korean War, radio dramas such as Cheongsilhongsil reflected the country's mood.Television broadcasting began in 1956 with the launch of an experimental station, HLKZ-TV, which was shut down a few years later due to a fire. The first national television channel was the Korean Broadcasting System, which started up in 1961. The first Korean television film was a 15-minute piece titled The Gate of Heaven, on HLKZ-TV.
With the opening of KBS-TV at the end of December 1961, television dramas began to gain momentum. In the early 60s, single-act dramas such as "Friday Theater" and "Continuous Historical Drama" were aired, and daily soap operas were the main ones entering the late 60s.
The first television series was aired by KBS in 1962. Their commercial competitor, Tongyang Broadcasting, had a more aggressive program policy and aired controversial dramas as well. The first historical TV series aired was Gukto manri, directed by Kim Jae-hyeong, depicting the Goryeo era. In the 1960s, television sets were of limited availability, thus dramas could not reach a larger audience.
The most popular drama in the 1960s was Sajikgol Old West Room, which aired in 1967, and the first daily soap opera was Snowfall by Dongyang TV in 1968. Meanwhile, The Frog Husband, which aired on MBC in 1969, caused a social stir for the first time in the nation's drama history, based on an affair.
In the 1970s, television sets started to spread among the general population, and dramas switched from portraying dramatic historical figures to introducing national heroes like Yi Sun-sin or Sejong the Great. Contemporary series dealt with personal sufferings, such as Kim Soo-hyun's influential Stepmother, aired by MBC in 1972 and 1973. As technology and funding were limited, Korean channels could not make series in resource-heavy genres like action and science fiction; American and other foreign series were imported instead.
1980s–2000s
The 1980s saw a change in Korean television, as color TV became available. Modern dramas tried to evoke nostalgia from urban dwellers by depicting rural life. Kim Soo-hyun's first real commercial success, Love and Ambition, aired on MBC in 1987 and is regarded as a milestone of Korean television, having recorded a 78% viewership. "Streets became quiet at around the airing time of the drama as 'practically everyone in the country' was at home in front of the TV", according to The Korea Times. The most outstanding classical historical series of the era is considered to be 500 Years of Joseon, a serial that ran for eight years, consisting of 11 separate series. The serial was produced by Lee Byung-hoon, who later directed one of the biggest international successes of Korean drama, Dae Jang Geum, which was sold in 150 countries.The 1990s brought another important milestone for Korean television. As technology developed, new opportunities arose, and the beginning of the decade marked the launch of a new commercial channel: Seoul Broadcasting System, which facilitated and re-initiated a race for catching viewers' attention. The first real commercial success among Korean television series was Eyes of Dawn, aired in 1991 by MBC, starring Chae Shi-ra and Choi Jae-sung. The series led the viewers through turbulent times from the Japanese rule to the Korean War. The 1992 MBC miniseries Jealousy starring Choi Jin-sil and Choi Soo-jong is considered the first "trendy drama", marking a breakthrough in filming techniques and the beginning of the romantic comedy genre in Korean dramas. The series depicted the lifestyles of young people of the era and is one of the first dramas to air in China, along with Eyes of Dawn. New channel SBS also produced successful series, one of them being Sandglass in 1995. Sandglass was another trendy drama, which the Korean Culture and Information Service considers an important milestone, having changed the way Korean dramas are made by introducing a new format. In this decade, the new miniseries format became widespread, with 12 to 24 episodes. The term Hallyu which comes from Mandarin 韓流, was coined in the late 1990s after the success of Star in My Heart in China, and its popularity elevated the main cast to Hallyu stardom. This era marked the start of export for Korean dramas, setting off the Korean Wave.
The beginning years of the 2000s gave birth to famous Korean dramas and also marked the period of overseas distribution. Some popular ones are Full House, Autumn in My Heart and Winter Sonata. It marks the birth of a new genre, called "fusion sageuk", essentially changing the ways to produce historical series, with successful pieces such as Hur Jun, Damo and Dae Jang Geum. It started to take over the popularity of conventional dramas among 10s and 20s because the shorter runtime, and often feature trendy content which teenagers find it easy to sympathize with.
2010s–present
In 2015, the third installment of the Reply anthology series, Reply 1988, aired on TvN and became the highest rated drama in Korean cable television history at the time of airing. The K-drama "wasn't just popular — it was a cultural phenomenon, widely hailed as a 'National Drama'" according to The Korea Times. The BBC has described it as a "television masterpiece" and credited the series for ushering in "South Korea's cable era" and laying "the groundwork for a swell of more realist and nostalgic Korean dramas" which subsequently gained international success.File:Cosplay_of_Squid_Game_Guards_at_Sutera_Cosplay_Fest_2021.jpg|thumb|upright|Cosplayers of the Netflix K-drama Squid Game in MalaysiaSeveral production companies began to produce dramas even before the first season like The Penthouse: War in Life which aired over three seasons. The introduction of the "season system" is interpreted as changes in the industry due to the 52-hour workweek, viewers' rejection of feature-length dramas, and oversupply of dramas.The late 2010s and 2020s saw newfound attention of K-dramas from international markets. Netflix had begun seeking productions from South Korea and other countries since around 2018 to expand offerings for their service with a growing international audience. These efforts came to fruition when Hwang Dong-hyuk's Squid Game starring Lee Jung-jae, drew in more than 111 million viewers within 17 days of its release in September 2021, becoming the service's most-watched program. For his performance, Lee ton he Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2022, making him the first person to win that award for a non-English-speaking role, and the first Asian man to win that award.
In the mid-2020s, dramas aired on terrestrial and cable networks have experienced a significant decrease in viewership. This trend was attributed to changes in viewing habits and the rise in popularity of over-the-top media service domestically. In 2025, when the Netflix original series When Live Give You Tangerines starring IU and Park Bo-gum aired, it garnered cross-generational popularity signaling that OTT consumers have now appealed to all age groups including middle-aged and older viewers. Media outlets have dubbed When Live Give You Tangerines a "National Drama", a sobriquet reserved for productions via over-the-air, cable, and satellite television. In addition, the series' star, Park Bo-gum, was also named 2025's Television Actor of the Year by Gallup Korea, the first actor in the poll's history to gain the title for an OTT release.