ENA’s Monday-Tuesday drama “Love Doctor” (Yeonae Baksa) has now spent three consecutive episodes stuck in the 2 percent ratings range, failing to turn even its boldest romantic swing into a ratings rebound.
According to Nielsen Korea, episode 4, which aired October 13, drew 2.25 percent nationwide, TV Report reported — three straight episodes in the 2 percent band. Episode 3, which aired October 12, posted 2.1 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from episode 2’s 2.4 percent, the show’s peak since its October 6 premiere, per TenAsia. (TopStarNews rounded the episode 4 figure to 2.3 percent.)
The show went all-in on romance in episode 4. Im Yu-jin (Kim So-hyun) finally confronted Park Min-jae (Choo Young-woo) and confessed she liked him too much to let anyone else have him — only to be rejected, as he told her he was too timid, too scared, and too wounded to be the right person for her. The turning point came when Im collapsed with appendicitis on her way home and was rushed to the emergency room by math professor Lee Ji-hoon (Jang In-sub). While recovering, she took his advice to heart, returned to the lab, and confronted Park about his own hidden pain — showing him her still-unhealed surgical scar and asking him to show her his. When he removed his prosthetic leg, revealing years of hardened scars from the pain he had endured alone, she kissed him without hesitation as their eyes met.
The drama carries extra weight as the final directing work of the late Ahn Pan-seok, who died in August 2026. Written by Min Hyo-jung, “Love Doctor” follows Park Min-jae, a robotics doctoral student who is all sincerity in research but hopeless at romance — a former high school swimmer who lost a leg to illness — and Im Yu-jin, a master’s student who lost her way career-wise, as an awkward romance blooms in their robotics lab. The supporting cast includes Park Hyuk-kwon, Seo Jung-yeon, Kim Min-seok, Lee Chang-hoon, Jang In-sub, and Ryu Kyung-in.
The 12-episode series airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 10 p.m. KST on ENA and streams on Genie TV and Disney+. With eight episodes left, the surprise-kiss gamble gave viewers a genuine jolt — but it will need to convert into ratings to rescue the late director’s final bow.
