Youth-themed dramas are struggling to gain ground on major networks this spring. Following Barney and the Brothers, which posted the lowest ratings in MBC’s history, SBS’s new youth series Spring of the Youth has also fallen to a discouraging 0% viewership range.

SBS’s Wednesday drama Spring of the Youth, which premiered on March 6, is a campus-based music romance following Sae-gye (played by Ha Yoon-jun), a former top K-pop band member who is ousted from his group and ends up meeting Kim Bom (Park Ji-hoo) at college. The network aired the drama on back-to-back days during its premiere week. The first episode, aired on March 6, recorded a 1.4% nationwide rating via Nielsen Korea, but the second episode—broadcast on March 7—saw that number drop by half to just 0.7%. While the cast, including Ha Yoon-jun, Park Ji-hoo, and Lee Seung-hyub, brought youthful energy, the overall reception was underwhelming.

MBC’s Friday drama Barney and the Brothers, which started on March 11, is facing similar challenges. Featuring a cast of fresh-faced actors such as Noh Jong-hyun, Lee Chae-min, Jo Joon-young, Kim Hyun-jin, and Hong Min-ki, the series showed promise visually but failed to capture viewer interest, debuting with only 0.9% after two episodes. The downward trend continued, with episode eight—aired on May 3—hitting a record low of 0.7%, now the lowest ever for an MBC Friday drama, surpassing even 2023’s Season of the Puppet, which dipped to 1.3%.

While tvN’s Lovely Runner (known in Korean as Sunjae Up and Bounce) has managed to maintain a strong online presence despite modest ratings, Spring of the Youth and Barney and the Brothers have both struggled to generate buzz. Only Barney and the Brothers managed to rank in the top 10 of TV-OTT topicality for the first week of May, coming in at number 10, according to data from K-content analysis agency Good Data Corporation’s FUNdex.

Meanwhile, youth-focused dramas on streaming platforms tell a different story. Netflix’s Weak Hero Class 1, which tackles school violence with a serious tone, received critical acclaim and strong viewer support, leading to a greenlight for Weak Hero Class 2. The sequel, released on April 25, has remained the second most talked-about TV-OTT drama for two weeks straight.

Experts suggest several reasons for the weak reception of terrestrial youth dramas. Primarily, their storylines and casting decisions don’t appeal to the older audience that dominates traditional broadcast TV—viewers typically in their 40s and 50s—who may struggle to relate to coming-of-age romances featuring unfamiliar young actors. On top of that, critiques over overly dramatic storytelling, stiff acting, and predictable plots have further hurt their reception.