Variety Show "Grandpas Over Flowers" Off To Great Start

The new TvN Variety Show “Grandpas Over Flowers” has got off to a great start with initial ratings of 4.15% (Based off of cable user standards) according to media research company AGB Nielson Korea.

“Grandpas over Flowers” is the new variety show from ex-1 Night 2 Days PD, Na Young Suk PD and is his first project since leaving KBS for TvN in early 2013. The cast is a list of some of the most veteran and well respected actors in the industry featuring names such as  Lee Soon Jae, Shin Gu, Park Geun Hyun and Baek Il Sub while also featuring the charismatic Lee Seo Jin, who actually plays more of a Lee Seung Gi character from 1 Night 2 Days. 

Actually in a lot of ways the new show has a lot of parallels with the venerable Sunday variety show that was Na Young Suk PD’s previous heart and soul. It’s clear to see that it is “Nah Young Suk PD” style variety show, one that places a lot of emphasis on the dynamics between the members while running at a leisurely pace, allowing the members to dictate the flow of the program at their own pace. It also retains the vacation motive of 1 Night 2 Days and not the more social commentary concepts employed on his last variety show for KBS, the relatively popular “Human Conditions.” But then again an argument could be made that this is just trying to break away some of the stigma people have regarding the older generations.

“Grandpas Over Flower’s” first backpacking trip is through the continent of Europe with their first location being the lovely country of France. The first episode showed the members having their first meeting and then their first night in the city of Paris. 

In terms of ratings, while 4.15% may not appear amazing at first glance, we have to remember that this is on a cable channel where 1% ratings are considered to be good and anything over 3% to be a great success. So to see the show start off with 4.15% is an amazing achievement and the only variety show on cable that could even claim to come close to this would be Mnet’s “Superstar K” during its peak.

In other Friday variety show rating news, MBC‘s “I live alone” received a much needed rating boost, climbing 2.1% to get to a much more comfortable 8.6%. Some of this gain could be attributed to the addition of Ex-H.O.T member Kangta, who showed off a new side to himself during this week’s episode. Timeslot rival, SBS’s “Thank You” was unfortunately worse off this week, dropping 0.9% to sit at a paltry 4.2% and coming 3rd overall in that timeslot. Meanwhile “Kim Byung Man’s Law Of The Jungle” continues to be the highest rating variety show for Friday despite a drop in ratings, going from 14.5% to 14.3%.