Kim Soo Hyun, Queen of Tears, Min Hee-jin: Newsmakers of the week

It has been a bittersweet week… while Queen of Tears concluded on a high note, Kim Soo Hyun announced his brief return to military service and Min Hee-jin dominated headlines with her feud with HYBE. Read on to know about the biggest newsmakers of the week.

The drama, headlined by Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won, claimed the title of the highest-rated drama finale in tvN's storied legacy. According to Nielsen Korea, the finale episode of ‘Queen of Tears’ recorded an average rating of 24.850 percent, beating the previous record set by Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin starrer ‘Crash Landing on You’ in February 2020, which achieved 21.683 percent for its final episode. The makers gave fans the happy ending they deserved and two more engaging episodes have been planned for the coming week.

HYBE and ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin caused quite a stir this week! HYBE launched an audit of subsidiary label ADOR, alleging breach of trust. While HYBE asked Min Hee-jin to exit, she refuted the allegations in a press conference held on April 25. In the emotional press meet, she said, "I have never said that ‘BTS copied me’.” and also revealed insights into her interactions with Bang Si Hyuk, the CEO of HYBE Entertainment. In the latest development, Min Hee-jin declared her intention to not participate in a board meeting requested by HYBE. It remains to be seen how this narrative shifts in the coming days.

Gong Yoo and Song Hye-kyo have been cast in screenwriter Noh Hee-kyung's upcoming historical K-drama, which will reportedly feature 20-24 episodes. Apart from this interesting casting, this series gained attention for its alleged budget. OSEN reported that this K-Drama has a production budget of 80 billion Korean Won. The estimated production cost per episode for this project is around 3 billion won (approximately 2.1 million USD), resulting in a total production budget projected to reach 80 billion won (approximately 58 million USD). Addressing the buzz, Studio Dragon was quoted by OSEN, “Since it’s a project in the planning stage without a finalized script, the exact number of episodes and production budget are undecided."

Beyond winning hearts with his onscreen presence in 'Queen of Tears', actor Kim Soo Hyun impressed everyone as he engaged in reserve force training in the South Korean military this week. He took time off to fulfill his military obligations recently and revealed the same via a message shared through Bubble, where he affectionately introduced himself as Army Sergeant Kim and wrote, "spent the day meeting 490 new people this morning".