‘Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter’ debuts No.1 on weekly TV chart

SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) — TvN’s new television series, “Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter,” has debuted at No. 1 on the weekly TV chart, data showed Wednesday.

The romantic comedy show, which premiered Nov. 5, recorded a Content Power Index (CPI) score of 255.7 for the week of Nov. 5-11.

It is based on the popular webtoon, or web-based comic, of the same name written by Dol Bae and published on Korea’s biggest online portal site, Naver, in 2017. The comic was inspired by an ancient tale that most Koreans probably know by heart.

In the popular Korean folktale “The Fairy and the Woodcutter,” the fairy successfully retrieves clothes that enable a fairy to fly and goes back to heaven with her two children, leaving her grieving woodcutter husband behind.

In the TV show, a fairy’s husband passes away in a tragic accident and she waits 699 years for him to be reincarnated. She lives to the present day and now works as a barista in a cafe tucked away on Mount Gyeryong. One day, she bumps into two men, one of whom she believes is very likely the reincarnation of her husband.

A poster for the television series “Mama Fairy and the Woodcutter” is shown in this image provided by tvN. The first episode will be aired on Nov. 5, 2018. (Yonhap)

The first episode recorded a viewership rating of 5.6 percent and the latest, fourth episode, aired on Tuesday, garnered 4.2 percent.

It remains to be seen if the drama can keep the audience intrigued and entertained down the road, by adding fresh twists to all-too-familiar story.

The CPI, created by CJ E&M and Nielsen Korea, measures the level of popularity, social media presence and influence on consumer behavior of entertainment TV programs aired on the three major terrestrial networks — MBC, SBS and KBS — and the seven cable channels owned by CJ ENM — including tvN, Mnet and OCN — during prime time. JTBC, another cable network that airs some highly popular entertainment shows and dramas, is not included in the measurement.