Will Lee Min Ho's The Legend of the Blue Sea become more popular than Descendants of the Sun?

South Korean fantasy drama The Legends of the Blue Sea premiered on November 15 and it has already broken the viewership ratings set by the popular Descendants of the Sun.

The first episode of The Legends of the Blue Sea hit a viewership rating of 16.4 percent, which is about two percent more than what Descendants of the Sun had after its premiere. Lee Min Ho, the actor who plays the lead, is sure to be excited with this number, as he had hoped for just 12-13 percent viewership rating.

It remains to be seen how the drama will fare in coming weeks, but viewers seem to have liked the humorous first interaction between a mermaid and a con artist.

Lee Min Ho recently opened up about his chemistry with Jun Ji Hyun, saying they got comfortable only as filming progressed. "I like her a lot. But we didn't get close right away," he was quoted as saying by Allkpop. "At first, I was uncomfortable, but, fortunately, while we were going abroad and back to shoot overseas, we got really close. We've become friends to the point we'd laugh just by looking at each other."

As for why he chose The Legends of the Blue Sea as his comeback project, Lee Min Ho said it was solely because of screenwriter Park Ji-Eun, whose previous work includes My Love From the Star.

The Legend of the Blue Sea airs every Wednesday and Thursday at 10 pm KST on SBS.