SBS 'Masters of Living' hits year-high rating of 4.3% with 'Namdaemun scarf ajeossi' episode

SBS's "Masters of Living" posted its highest viewership rating of the year after featuring the viral Namdaemun Market vendor known as the "Namdaemun scarf ajeossi."

According to Nielsen Korea, episode 1054 of "Masters of Living," which aired Monday at 9 p.m., drew a nationwide rating of 4.3 percent — the show's best figure this year. The rating reached 4.5 percent in the Greater Seoul area.

The nationwide figure rose 1.3 percentage points from the previous week's 2.9 percent.

The show's household viewership ranking also leaped from 19th last week to 13th this week.

This year, the show had crossed the 4 percent threshold nationwide only twice — on Feb. 2 (4.0 percent) and Monday. Outside those two episodes, ratings had hovered in the 2 to 3 percent range.

Viewership appeared to surge after the Monday broadcast was promoted as revealing the real story behind the Namdaemun Market vendor who had become a social media star.

The production team had said ahead of the episode that the vendor "has spent decades honing skills at Namdaemun alongside their mother, and has a refined sales strategy that wins over customers, showing how they handle safety concerns and look out for fellow vendors." The team said the episode would tell the vendor's true story.

The broadcast fell short of expectations in one respect — a direct interview with the ajeossi did not materialize. The show instead conveyed the story through interviews with neighboring vendors and customers. According to those vendors, the person, identified only as A, once ran a restaurant at Namdaemun Market with their mother and sells leather clothing and hats in winter, sleepwear in summer and scarves in autumn. One vendor offered a surprising glimpse of A's personality, saying A is "usually quiet, polite and very reserved."

"Masters of Living" is a long-running SBS reality program that has aired since 2005, spotlighting people who have reached a master level of skill in a single field through decades of passion and dedication.