The 'Perfect Crown,' a 21st-century grand madam beset by constant noise and controversy, is now embroiled in a scheduling controversy over a binge broadcast.
According to the MBC ON channel schedule for the 24th, all episodes of MBC's Friday-Saturday drama Perfect Crown are scheduled from 10:30 a.m. until 1:10 a.m. the next day. A full-series binge broadcast was scheduled so viewers could watch from the premiere through the finale for about 14 hours and 40 minutes. MBC ON is a channel operated by MBC Plus, a subsidiary of MBC, and mainly airs reruns of dramas and variety shows broadcast on MBC, with a focus on cultural programming.
Only two days after director Park Jun-hwa's tearful apology over historical distortion and while lead actors IU and Byeon Woo-seok also released official apologies, the decision to put a full-series binge broadcast in place as if to flaunt it has prompted an outpouring of criticism such as "watch your manners" and "are you picking a fight with viewers?"
OSEN reporting on the 21st found that Perfect Crown had long been scheduled before the controversy erupted. The channel typically has a noticeably low proportion of in-house content and is planned to air programs after the original broadcasts on MBC have finished, and Perfect Crown naturally followed that schedule as it ended.
From the channel's perspective, there was no historical distortion issue at the time of scheduling, so they naturally did not anticipate this backlash, but the schedule became controversial after being mentioned belatedly.
Regarding this, a representative told OSEN, "We recognized the controversy surrounding the work and scheduled it in as edited a form as possible," and said a muted version of "cheonse cheonse cheoncheonse" will be released. They also explained, "It is difficult to cancel the scheduling immediately because there is no suitable alternative lineup, and other cable TV channels such as ENA drama and The Life are also scheduling reruns of Perfect Crown, so we proceeded with the scheduled airing of the edited version addressing the raised concerns. We ask for your understanding."
Earlier, in episode 11 of Perfect Crown, a coronation scene for the male lead, Prince Ian (played by Byeon Woo-seok), was revealed, showing not the crown of an emperor but the gu-ryu myeonryugwan of a vassal state and the appearance of "cheonse," which refers to a vassal state king rather than the emperor's "manse." This drew sharp criticism that it could provide a pretext for China's historical distortion project to claim Joseon was a vassal state by incorporating the histories of countries that were in northeast China into its own history.
[Photo] drama poster
[OSEN]