Why Korean Drama Season 2s Take So Long: 2 Years and 4 Months Until *Flex x Cop 2*

*Flex x Cop* Season 2 begins on the night of August 7.

Season 1 ended in March 2024, so it has been 2 years and 4 months.

Is it normal to wait this long for the next season of a drama you enjoyed?

3-line summary
1. *Flex x Cop 2* returns on August 7 after 2 years and 4 months.
2. Season 1 began at 5.7% and rose to 11.0%.
3. Sequels are delayed not because of actors, but because of the order of the process.

August 7, 9:50 p.m.

It takes the SBS Friday-Saturday drama slot. Ahn Bo-hyun returns as Jin I-soo, while Jung Eun-chae joins as new team leader Joo Hye-ra. Written by Kim Ba-da and directed by Kim Jae-hong—the people who made Season 1 are all back.

That alone is not common. In two years, a writer and director have enough time to finish at least one more project.

From 5.7 to 11.0

Season 1 aired 16 episodes from January 26 to March 23, 2024. Its first episode recorded a nationwide rating of 5.7%, rising to 11.0% by Episode 8.

That is a curve that nearly doubled. This is exactly the pattern broadcasters look at when deciding whether to make a sequel. It matters more for ratings to rise as the season goes on than for the first episode to be high. A high opening means expectations were high, but higher ratings later mean the people who started watching stayed.

What was 2 years and 4 months spent on?

It may look like production time, but most of it comes before that. The sequence for making a sequel in Korea goes like this:

It airs → its performance is reviewed → only then is a sequel planned → the script is written → the scattered actors’ schedules are aligned again → it receives a broadcast slot → it is filmed.

For overseas series, the second and third steps come first. Their structure is planned by season from the development stage. That is why they can leave clues for the next story in the final episode of the first season.

In Korea, those clues are created later.

The order is backward

In a June report, *Hankook Ilbo* relayed criticism that, in Korea, sequels are often planned belatedly after the success of the first installment, which can undermine the completeness of the series as a whole.

This sequence creates three costs.

Season 1 is already completely over. Because it was written without a sequel in mind, a door has to be made again in a closed story.

The contracts have ended. Actors and production staff were only tied down through Season 1, so negotiations begin again from scratch.

Memories fade. This is the biggest one. After two years, a significant number of people who watched Season 1 have forgotten the plot.

That is why SBS attached two specials ahead of the premiere. On the night of July 31, it aired “Chaebol Flex Investigation Log,” a Season 1 recap, and on the evening of August 1, it aired “*Flex x Cop 2* Preview.” In effect, it used two broadcasts to restore what viewers had forgotten.

Then why insist on this order? Because of scheduling. If everything is made before a broadcast slot is confirmed, an unsold completed product remains. It also eliminates room to change direction if the response is lukewarm. It is a way of postponing risk, but the more it is postponed, the longer it takes.

The team leader has changed

A new team leader joins in Season 2. Character changes are common in seasonal series, but they happen more often in a structure planned belatedly. After two years, actors’ next schedules are already filled.

That is why the Korean-style seasonal system is closer to “a story that continues with the same world and format” than “a story continued by the same actors.” This is also why a format that keeps one central character fixed while swapping out the surrounding cast holds up well. That was how SBS carried *Dr. Romantic* through three seasons.

This year is a little different

Even on SBS alone, *Flex x Cop*, *Good Partner*, and *The Judge from Hell* are returning side by side for Season 2. Netflix and TVING are also extending successful works into seasons.

The reason is not romantic. Production costs have risen, and there is more to lose when a project fails. No one knows where a new drama’s first-episode ratings will start, but a sequel has the people who watched Season 1 supporting its baseline. A story that already has fans becomes a safe investment.

A comment by drama critic Professor Yoon Seok-jin, published in *Hankook Ilbo*, is striking. Seasonal series have high production efficiency, and as the drama market has shrunk, actors have also become more willing to take on sequels. In other words, the actor-scheduling problem that once blocked seasonal series has eased as work has become scarcer.

What to watch on August 7

Whether there will be a Season 3 will be decided in the same way as this season: not by the first episode’s number, but by the shape of the curve. If the end is higher than the beginning, there will be another season; if it starts high and falls, there will not.

The new team leader’s place is also worth watching. It is a change created as actors’ schedules shifted over two years, and if this role fills the gap left by Season 1, the series will become more firmly one that continues through its format rather than its characters.

If you have forgotten Season 1, there is no need to start over from the beginning. That is why SBS made separate recap specials, and the creators also write Episodes 1 and 2 on the assumption that new viewers will join.

Season 2’s late arrival is not the result of laziness, but of the order of the process.

And that order is changing now. But if the wait for the next season becomes shorter, it is more likely to be because the drama market has become harsher, not because it has improved.

References

Ratings are based on Nielsen Korea’s nationwide figures, and the broadcast information and observations on the seasonal system refer to the reports above.