Sung Hoon is back in a leading role for the first time in three years. The actor headlines MBN’s new Wednesday-Thursday drama “The Boss’s Blatant Taste,” which premieres on Tuesday, November 11, at 10:20 p.m. KST, capping a comeback day that began with a press conference in Seoul.
At a production presentation held on Tuesday morning at the Stanford Hotel in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Sung Hoon appeared alongside director Kang Sol and co-stars Oh Se-young and Lee Jung-shin of CNBLUE. He opened the event by promising to answer questions faithfully — a fitting start for an actor whose return has been three years in the making. The 12-episode series, written by Nam Ji-yeon and produced by Gadin Media and Artist Studio, is adapted from the web novel of the same name, which was also turned into a webtoon. It will air every Wednesday and Thursday through December 17, and will also stream on Viki, according to Soompi.
Sung Hoon plays Kwon Do-hyuk, the CEO of Oyes Entertainment — a perfectionist AI expert and chaebol boss who trusts data and logic over emotion and, by his own description, has zero sense of personal taste. His mission is to find “Her,” the woman whose voice he heard on a single album. That search collides with Lee Eun-chae, played by Oh Se-young, an indie band vocalist who becomes the one unpredictable variable in his otherwise perfectly ordered life. By day, Lee Eun-chae hides her musical life behind an ordinary office job; by night, she is the lead singer of an indie band. The two enter a fake romance — and, as stills released on November 4 showed, a suspicious three-month contract that turns her into his secretary after he learns her secret. Lee Jung-shin co-stars as Moon Tae-kyung, a skilled and warm-hearted pediatrician, completing a love triangle built on sharply contrasting charms.
Speaking at the press conference, Sung Hoon addressed the question he said he has heard most often: why producers keep casting him. “When entrusted with a work, I take responsibility and carry it through — I think they value that ability,” he said, adding that overseas sales play a large part in the calculation. “I think the reason they keep coming to me is overseas rights. They trust me because [my works] don’t start in the red.” Director Kang Sol agreed, noting that Sung Hoon’s past series performed better overseas than at home, and that reaching international viewers is the breakthrough the production is aiming for.
The comeback closes a three-year gap since Sung Hoon’s last leading role, in MBN’s “The Perfect Marriage” in 2023. The break followed a controversy in 2022, when his appearance on tvN’s variety show “The Queued Restaurant” drew criticism from viewers, who faulted him for showing impatience during a long wait in line, eating food directly with barbecue tongs, and wiping sweat in the middle of a meal. His agency apologized at the time, saying his behavior had gone too far in pursuit of variety-show fun. Since then, Sung Hoon has appeared only in special appearances, making the new drama his first full return to a leading role.
The role also continues a pattern Sung Hoon himself noted at the press conference: many of his best-known series, including the 2017 romance “My Secret Romance,” were adapted from webtoons. “Looking back, all my previous works were webtoon originals,” he said. The new drama fits the mold, and it arrives as MBN revives its Wednesday-Thursday slot — part of a broader November return for midweek dramas, with broadcasters including tvN, KBS2, and SBS all scheduling new Wednesday-Thursday series. tvN’s “Hot Goodbye” premieres the same night at 10:50 p.m., making November 11 a head-to-head opening night for the restored time slot.
Whether the comeback lands will be decided quickly: the first episode airs tonight, and the premiere-night question is whether Kwon Do-hyuk’s data-driven search for “Her” can win over viewers — and whether the overseas audience Sung Hoon and his director are counting on shows up for a drama built, by their own account, to travel.
