Peninsula: I can steal the luck of disgraced celebrities

On the day the ratings for the premiere of "Bad Guy" came out, director Lee Hyung-min called the main cast and crew to a small conference room at the SBS Ilsan Production Center.

The AGB Nationwide rating was 11.7%, and the TNS Nationwide rating was 12.0%.

The number silenced the room for three seconds, then erupted in chaos.

The crew members were all excitedly hugging and celebrating.

Lee Hyung-min stood in front of the whiteboard, clutching the remote control in his hand, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly, finally managing to say only, "Thank you for your hard work, everyone."

This is a very good result for a premiere.

It's worth noting that "Bad Guy" was followed by "Personal Taste" on MBC, starring Son Ye-jin and Lee Min-ho.

The premiere only garnered a 12.5% ​​national viewership rating on AGB and a 12.7% national viewership rating on TNS.

The male and female leads of "Bad Man" are a newcomer and a newly returned actress, respectively, and neither of them has the same level of fame as the other two.

Lee Hyung-min was preparing to take everyone out for drinks and a celebratory meal when his assistant, who was playing on his phone, seemed to notice something and showed Lee Hyung-min the screen of his phone.

Li Hengmin's expression changed.

At this moment, Ha Joo-hee also sent a message.

[Spring Bear: Quick, check out the trending topics on Naver Me2day.]

Naver Me2day is roughly similar to Weibo in China. Lin Puzhi opened the app and found that there were many trending topics about "Bad Man".

Naver Me2day's Real-Time Trending List #7: #BadMenPlagiarism#

Thirteenth: #Lin Puzhi steals a role#

21st: #Who is Lin Puzhi?#

He clicked on the first entry.

The most popular post came from a blog called "Jin Mou, a drama critic," which was 3,000 words long and had only one core argument.

The plot structure of "Bad Man" is "highly similar" to a late-night drama that aired on TBS in Japan last year, and so-called "eight similarities" have been listed.

The post was published at 2:17 AM.

The premiere ended at 10 pm last night. To write an analysis of this length within four hours, no one would believe it without prior preparation.

"Did you see that?" Cui Hao sent another message. "Want me to help you find out who's behind this? Just buy me a meal."

[Lin Puzhi: Alright, since you're going to treat me to dinner, I'll leave this task to you.]

After sending the message, Lin Puzhi covered his stomach with his phone and stopped looking at the messages from He Zhuxi.

Lee Hyungmin, meanwhile, scrolled through Naver Me2day's trending topics with a somber expression.

The top twenty comments were all trying to stir up trouble.

"As expected, Korean screenwriters only know how to plagiarize Japanese works." "Screenwriter Lee Kyung-hee has run out of ideas." "After watching the original, this is just a low-budget remake."

The wording was remarkably consistent, and even the punctuation usage was similar.

More noticeably, most of the accounts commenting on these posts used the default system photos as their profile pictures, and their registration dates were concentrated between February and March of this year.

Online trolls.

Lee Hyung-min's earlier excitement vanished instantly.

He put down his phone, looked around the conference room, and said, "I have something to discuss with Lao Lin. You guys go celebrate."

Old Lin is the representative of SBS television station.

SBS's public relations team reacted quickly.

At 2 PM, the official statement was released, refuting the plagiarism accusations point by point, and also included a timeline of screenwriter Lee Kyung-hee's creative manuscript.

The earliest recorded idea dates back to the fall of 2008, six months before the broadcast of that so-called Japanese drama.

But Lin Puzhi knew that such clarification would have limited effect.

Netizens will only believe the truth they want to believe, and conspiracy theories are more in line with the public's expectations.

Sure enough, after the statement was released, the hashtag not only didn't drop, but rose to third place on the trending topics list.

The new post started to veer in a different direction.

"Lin Puzhi is an outsider." "He has the support of a chaebol behind him." "How can a newcomer outrank Kim Jae-wook?"

The accompanying photos show him holding Lee Yue-hee in the SBS lobby and Lee Yue-hee being carried into a black van by Aunt Ahn.

The little girl's face was blurred in the photo.

The phone vibrated on Lin Puzhi's stomach for three minutes before finally stopping.

Lin Puzhi picked up his phone, not even looking at the messages, and sent a message to He Zhuxi:

"Can you find out who it is?"

The other party replied not long after.

"The investigation is still ongoing, but online marketing companies only have a few channels for receiving orders, so they can't escape."

Ten minutes later, Ha Joo-hee sent a message.

"SBS".

To be precise, the mastermind behind this is not SBS television station, but rather some people within SBS television station.

Where there are people, there are groups; where there are groups, there are disagreements.

At the same time, director Lee Hyung-min also found out about some people at SBS television station.

He was so angry that he threw a tantrum at the SBS television station's reception area.

"Idiots! A bunch of idiots who deserve to be in a museum!"

"I initially thought it was either a paid troll hired by a competitor in the same time slot, or a director with whom I didn't get along."

"But I never expected it would be some idiots from your SBS television station!"

"So the enemy was in the Blue House!"

The middle-aged producer standing nearby kept offering words of comfort:

"Alright, alright, calm down. Don't get so angry that you'll harm your health."

"SBS is currently conducting its own investigation, and I believe the results will be available soon."

"And the result?" At this, Lee Hyung-min grew even angrier, his voice rising an octave. "So what if they found the murderer? Can he reverse the online public opinion now? Can they boost the ratings for 'Bad Guy'?"

After saying that, Lee Hyung-min's eyes reddened.

This drama is not only Han Ga-in's hopeful comeback project, but also a work in which he wants to prove himself once again as a master of emotional dramas.

"Found it! Found it! We've found out who it is!"

A middle-aged man rushed into the reception room, panting as he spoke.

Lee Hyung-min and producer Fang Lao-lin both looked at him at the same time.

"It's Chen He."

Chen He, of course, does not refer to the actor Chen He who filmed "iPartment" in China.

There's also a director named Chen He in South Korea.

His film "Prosecutor Princess" was replaced by "Bad Guy" on SBS.

At that moment, he was holed up in a simple apartment with Park Si-hoo, who played the male lead in "Prosecutor Princess".

"Brother, are we really not going to be discovered like this?" Park Si-hoo asked, his heart pounding with fear.

Park Si-hoo knew very well that once it was discovered that he had hired online trolls to attack other dramas, no director would be willing to let him act.

"If you're afraid, don't do it! If you do it, don't be afraid!" Chen He took a drag of his cigarette and then rudely blew the smoke into Park Si-hoo's face.

The hiring of online trolls was something Chen He instructed Park Si-hoo to do.

The AGB Nielsen national premiere of "Prosecutor Princess" only garnered an 8% viewership rating, with the final episode achieving its highest rating of 12.6%.

Since you can't improve yourself, then make others fall behind, and your ranking will rise.

This is Chen He's idea.

As for why Park Si-hoo was brought in.

It can only be said that Chen He, as a director who has been fond of using underhanded methods for many years, could tell at a glance that Park Shi-hoo was not a good person and had a bleak future.