We have a start date...FINALLY...

[ajk]

...and unfortunately the news isn't all that great. The first two episodes of Jeong Dojeon will air this Saturday and Sunday, February 8 and 9, at 11:40 p.m. Chicago time.

The schedule for this week also shows that episode 1 will be rerun on Sunday morning at 10:20 a.m., which is better...but it doesn't say when episode 2 will be rerun. I don't know if it will run on Monday, or if they'll carry it over and make people wait until the following Saturday to see it.

I guess this is better than sunrise with no reruns. But it's still pretty awkward scheduling.

[mikey]

Well, hooray! At least we know that it's starting.

Funny, but I remember how KBS America (based in Los Angeles) always seemed to run things very late for people in the eastern time zones (this show will air at 9:40pm in California). Maybe they need to consider that, for much of their audience, these midnight showings are a bit late.

I've noticed that SBS usually has two showings of their weekday dramas: one early (about 5:00pm) and one late (about 10:00pm). Maybe they've got the American time-zone thing figured out better than KBS.

No biggie, though. I'll set the recorder, and just watch it the next day.

[ajk]

I don't understand it, mikey, because even if they're assuming that their viewership is primarily on the West Coast--which maybe it is, maybe it isn't--you'd expect an audience for a show like this one to skew a little older. So putting it on later at night seems like a bad move. Same with a Sunday morning rerun, since older people attend church more than younger people. But we can't do anything about it (and I already loaded up the Two Sisters board with snide comments about TV executives, so I won't repeat myself).

What exactly are you getting from SBS? Is it an SBS worldwide channel of some sort? Cable or satellite? The reason I ask is that we have a new broadcaster entering the Chicago market (the channel 22 thing I had posted about) and if something from SBS is available I thought I'd suggest it to them.

[mikey]

Just as KBS has "KBS America," SBS has its own American service. It's based in Los Angeles, and they've got an English website:

www.sbs-int.com/en/default.aspx

For your amusement, get a load of the map, showing SBS International's coverage in the United States:

www.sbs-int.com/en/broadcasting/sbs_channel.aspx

Yet another example, I'm afraid, of how little these Korean guys really know about America (last time I checked, Indiana and Illinois are, *ahem*, not the same).

SBS has two American channels: "SBS" and "SBS Plus." SBS has all the first-run drama shows, while SBS Plus has more of the oddball/variety shows, as well as some rebroadcasts of older SBS primetime dramas.

My satellite service (DirecTV) offers both of the SBS channels (as well as both of the MBC channels, and - as of a few months ago - the main KBS channel, too). But, you do have to pay for the extra-cost Korean package to receive it.

Not sure about anywhere else, but in Los Angeles, SBS is shown evenings on channel 18. Here's their program schedule.

www.la18.tv//wp-content/uploads/2014/01/English_2001_2014.pdf

As you can see, that station is a foreign-language mix, with mostly Mandarin in the daytime, and Korean in the evening. It seems to be a pretty successful business model, and if there's a start-up station out your way, they might be interested in checking that out.

[ajk]

Thanks for the good info, mikey. Yeah, that's exactly why I asked; because of the Channel 22 thing that just started up near me. The guy who's running it said they're looking for international content so I'm going to suggest this to him.