Kim Ji Won’s new SBS drama “Doctor X” is off to a roaring start. The medical noir premiered on October 9 with a nationwide rating of 11.4%, instantly becoming the highest-rated miniseries premiere of 2026.
According to an OSEN report citing Nielsen Korea data released on October 10, the first episode peaked at 12.9% and scored 11.2% in the Seoul metropolitan area.
The debut even outpaced the 11.8% finale of its time-slot predecessor “Flex x Cop 2,” landing 5.3 percentage points above that show’s own 6.1% premiere. It also topped the 9.5% premiere of SBS’s hit drama “Director Kim” (김부장). Among viewers aged 20 to 49, the episode peaked at 4.3% and averaged 3.7%, ranking No. 1 across all programs aired that week.
The numbers are especially notable for Kim Ji Won, who returned to television two years after tvN’s “Queen of Tears” — a drama that debuted at just 5.9% before climbing to a 24.9% finale. In “Doctor X: The Age of the White Mafia,” she plays Gye Su-jeong, a genius surgeon dubbed “the mad dog of the operating room,” who takes on a corrupt medical cartel at Guseo University Hospital.
With double-digit ratings from night one, all eyes are now on how high “Doctor X” can climb in the weeks ahead.
