KBS 2TV's "Descendants of the Sun" is off to a strong start with double-digit viewership, Nielsen Korea data showed Thursday, offering a measure of redemption to the network whose shows have consistently lost out to rival channels in recent seasons.The show starring actor Song Joong-ki and actress Song Hye-kyo drew 14.3 percent of viewers nationwide on its opening Wednesday, the data showed.A similar percentage of viewers in and around Seoul tuned into the series produced by Lee Eung-bok and wri

South Korean actor Jung Woo-sung plans to meet Syrian refugees in Lebanon as part of efforts to enhance public awareness of the humanitarian crisis, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.Jung has worked as a "goodwill ambassador" for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since 2014.He will meet with refugee families in "informal settlements" in Lebanon in March, it said.It would be his third visit to the UNHCR's refugee operation following visits to Nepal and South Sudan in 2014 and 2

The South Korean TV series "Cheese in the Trap" continues to be one of the most viewed foreign soap operas on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, the program's publicist said Wednesday.The Ytree Co. said in a statement that the series based on a popular webtoon in South Korea has attracted a total of 1.93 billion views on Weibo as of Tuesday, despite it lacking formal contracts and a management team in China.The tvN series is set to be streamed on Youku and Tudou, two of China's largest vi

South Korean actor Kim Soo-hyun and boy band BigBang have been name Best Actor and Best Boy Group, respectively, in a recent vote of 40 million hallyu fans around the world, an online news site said Wednesday.U.S.-based site Soompi, which covers the Korean Wave or hallyu, announced the winners of the Soompi Awards 2015. The awards were voted on by fans from 139 countries. Soompi said the vote was conducted online, through its official LINE Soompi accounts, and on Twitter from Dec. 21 last year t

Actor Namgoong Min, who played the villain Nam Kyu-min in the recently concluded drama "Remember - War of the Son," has an unusual achievement: committing all the bad deeds possibly shown on TV."I should probably stop playing the villain," he said while laughing in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday. "Maybe I could in a different genre. I just think I've done all the horrible things you can on TV without violating the broadcasting guidelines."In the SBS series, the chairman's son wi

South Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon will make a TV comeback as the leading woman in "The Good Wife," her agency said Wednesday.The upcoming tvN drama will be her first soap opera role in 11 years, Management Soop said.In the South Korean remake of the popular American series of the same name, Jeon will play Hyekyeong, a housewife who resumes her career as a defense attorney after her husband lands in prison on corruption charges."I'd been wanting to get out of my comfort zone when they asked me to

Actor Park Sung-woong has a lot in common with his character, Park Dong-ho, in the recently concluded SBS series "Remember - War of the Son."And no, it's not just their last name, although that's part of it. It's also their degrees in law and odd senses of style.Like his alter-ego, Park studied law against his will -- it was his dad's idea more than his -- but instead of joining a gang, Park, then 23, went into acting.Almost 20 years later, Park can finally say studying law "has paid off." But i

Five entertainment TV producers have left top South Korean networks to realize their "Chinese dreams," the producer who instigated their defections said Monday.Kim Young-hee, who announced his departure from the terrestrial network MBC last year, said three of his former coworkers and one producer each from SBS and S.M. C&C have joined him in his endeavors to make it big in the Chinese entertainment scene.The three MBC producers are Shin Jung-soo, who directed "Come to Play" and "I'm a Singer,"

Actor Ahn Jae-hyun will replace actor Lee Seung-gi in the second season of the tvN variety show "New Journey to the West," producers said Friday.Ahn has left for Chengdu in China's Sichuan Province to shoot the sequel for the online show, which immediately garnered tens of thousands of views on Naver upon release in September, tvN said.Ahn rose to stardom after playing the younger brother of Cheong Song-yi (Jun Ji-hyun) on the SBS sci-fi rom-com "My Love from the Star" in 2014.He also appeared o

NEW YORK (AP) -- Joseph Fiennes is defending himself in the wake of criticism after being cast as Michael Jackson in an upcoming half-hour TV special, acknowledging the topic is "sensitive" but never intending it to be divisive.The white actor will play the King of Pop in the upcoming Sky Arts comedy "Elizabeth, Michael, and Marlon," which tells the story of a road trip taken by Jackson, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor as they flee New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks."I dea