Tamra gets shortened to 16 episodes

From Dramabeans

Geez, what is MBC’s deal? First they butchered Strike Love’s ending — which already had a more fleshed-out ending filmed — and now they’re cutting their low-rated but well-received weekend drama Tamra the Island.

According to Group Eight, the drama’s production company, “We received the report from MBC that the broadcast will end with the 16th episode. As we prepared for 20 episodes, this is disappointing.”

Fan response is largely opposed to MBC’s move, saying that even if extensions are out of the question, to curtail a 20-episode drama to 16 episodes is absurd; furthermore, the drama’s own development will be impeded. Many statements opposing the decision are being posted on MBC’s drama homepage, and as of the source article’s printing on September 1, it had received 1,700 responses in protest. A further 1,179 were posted on another site, Agora.

Tamra has been lauded as a “premium drama” and called a fresh trendy sageuk, despite the ratings that have lingered around the 5% mark. That’s low, to be sure, but as I understand it, most of the drama had been filmed in advance. That means that a shortening of the drama’s run will require a lot of rushed editing. One broadcast station source expressed dismay that high-quality dramas have been unable to grab ratings numbers, and said, “If the broadcast stations cling too much to ratings numbers, they will cause adverse effects on the development of dramas.”