SBS Drama Awards 2023 is all set to take place this Friday, December 29, 2023, at 8:40 p.m. KST. Recently, SBS faced a controversy regarding its declaration of the other criteria for the Best Couple Award category. The issue occurred after the network already held an online vote for the same category. My Demon’s Song Kang and Kim Yoo-Jung won in the online vote as the best couple by a huge margin.
SBS has finally addressed the ongoing controversy by releasing an official statement on Friday, December 29, 2023. The statement reads, “The criteria for the Best Couple award have been the same every year, and we put them in writing this year because we’d received many inquiries about the award criteria.”
SBS Drama Awards 2023 Best Couple Award controversy explained
SBS held an online vote for the Best Couple Award 2023 on its website. The nominees in this particular category for the award show included Lee Sung-Kyung and Ahn Hyo-Seop of Dr. Romantic 3. It also included Kim Yoo-Jung and Song Kang of My Demon and Shin Ye-Eun and Ryeoun of The Secret Romantic Guesthouse.
The voting started on December 18 and ended on December 27, 2023. In the online voting, My Demon’s Song Kang and Kim Yoo-Jung received an overwhelming number of votes. The on-screen couple became the winner of the online vote for the Best Couple Award. However, SBS later stated in an official statement that they would determine the winner based on other criteria apart from the online vote, which created a huge controversy.
SBS explained, “Aside from the online voting results, the Best Couple award is also determined based on the votes of each drama’s production team, the internal votes of SBS and Studio S employees, viewership ratings, online buzz, and other factors. The results will be announced during the live broadcast [of the 2023 SBS Drama Awards].”
After the statement was released, the audience started to speculate that the network must have changed the criteria for the Best Couple award to avoid giving it to Song Kang, who may not attend the SBS Drama Awards 2023 due to difficult scheduling.
On December 29, 2023, SBS denied all the speculation regarding the controversy. They have released an official statement that reads, “The criteria for the Best Couple award have been the same every year, and we put them in writing this year because we’d received many inquiries about the award criteria…We would be grateful if you would tune in to the broadcast to see the award results.”
Watch the SBS Drama Awards 2023 on December 29 at 8:40 p.m. KST. It will also be available on Viki with subtitles.
