It is titled Absolute Boyfriend on Viki in English-speaking countries,[3] but the official English title in South Korea[2] and on Netflix in Asia[4][5] is My Absolute Boyfriend.
The series was previously titled Romantic Comedy King and in talks to air on OCN, but was ultimately cancelled.[16]
The lead roles of Um Da-da and Ma Wang-jun were previously offered to Song Ji-hyo and Chun Jung-myung respectively, but both declined.[16]
The first script reading was held on June 22, 2018, and filming began in July.[17]
The filming was completed and the series was aired on SBS in May 2019.[18] Originally scheduled to air for 40 episodes, the series was reduced by four episodes due to low ratings, as well as the suspension of the Monday-Tuesday drama timeslot that saw the following drama, Doctor Detective, move to the Wednesday-Thursday timeslot. The international broadcast remained at 40 episodes.
In this table, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.
Ep.
Original broadcast date
AGB Nielsen (Nationwide)
1
May 15, 2019
2.1%
2
2.4%
3
May 16, 2019
3.1%
4
3.5%
5
May 22, 2019
2.6%
6
3.0%
7
May 23, 2019
2.9%
8
3.0%
9
May 29, 2019
2.5%
10
2.7%
11
May 30, 2019
2.9%
12
2.7%
13
June 5, 2019
2.3%
14
2.7%
15
June 6, 2019
3.4%
16
3.1%
17
June 12, 2019
1.8%
18
1.8%
19
June 13, 2019
3.2%
20
2.9%
21
June 19, 2019
2.0%
22
2.5%
23
June 20, 2019
3.1%
24
2.6%
25
June 26, 2019
1.8%
26
2.2%
27
June 27, 2019
2.8%
28
2.3%
29
July 3, 2019
1.5%
30
1.7%
31
July 4, 2019
2.7%
32
2.4%
33
July 10, 2019
1.8%
34
1.7%
35
July 11, 2019
2.4%
36
2.0%
Average
2.5%
Notes
^Originally scheduled to air for 40 episodes, only 36 episodes were scheduled to air on SBS due to low ratings, as well as the suspension of the Monday-Tuesday drama time slot. The international broadcast remains at 40 episodes.
^ abIn order to circumvent Korean laws that prevent commercial breaks in the middle of an episode, what would previously have been aired as single 70 minute episodes are now being repackaged as two 35 minute episodes, with two episodes being shown each night with a commercial break between the two.[1]
