“W Dos Mundos” stars Han Hyo-joo (L) and Lee Jong-suk (R).
TelevisaUnivision/UNIMÁS
The K-drama experiment continues on UNIMÁS as Goblin, El Guardián — the first South Korean series on the Spanish-language network — wraps up with a direct handoff to another romance from that country.
Goblin, El Guardián, which debuted on July 9, comes to an end next Wednesday, August 13 at 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT. The finale will be the lead-in for the premiere of W, Dos Mundos (W: Two Worlds) the same day at 10 p.m. ET / 9 p.m. CT.
The pairing of Goblin’s finale with the series premiere of W, Dos Mundos gives TelevisaUnivision’s secondary U.S. broadcast network an audience retention hook for its second K-drama rollout of the summer as it courts younger viewers with globally popular IP.
W, Dos Mundos stars Lee Jong-suk and Han Hyo-joo, two popular South Korean actors, in a tale that blends parallel universes, romance, suspense and the metafictional world of webtoons.
The series follows Oh Yeon-joo, a surgical resident whose search for her father — the creator of Korea’s top webtoon, W — pulls her into the comic’s universe. There, she meets Kang Chul, the story’s protagonist: a young, wealthy entrepreneur and Olympic medalist determined to solve his family’s murder. When Yeon-joo intervenes and saves him from an assassin, the two are thrust into a high-stakes, emotional journey. As she falls for Kang Chul, Yeon-joo must unravel why her father is determined to kill his own creation, and how their two worlds have become intertwined. She soon learns that the only way to escape this alternate universe is to win Kang Chul’s love.
Produced by Chorokbaem Media, W Dos Mundos has received multiple awards, including Drama of the Year and top excellence actor awards in a miniseries for the lead stars at the 2016 MBC Drama Awards.
Targeting Youth with Global K-Drama Appeal
The premiere of W, Dos Mundos extends UNIMÁS’s programming strategy of tapping premium, high-production-value K-dramas — dubbed in Spanish — to diversify primetime and grow share among younger viewers who already stream Korean content.
When TelevisaUnivision announced the addition of K-dramas to the UNIMÁS lineup, Bárbara Musa Ruiz, the company’s SVP of programming strategy and scheduling,framed the bet around the genre’s global appeal and content that boasts ”impressive cinematography and settings, and visual effects that enhance the viewer’s experience, in addition to their emotional stories with surprising twists that will deeply connect with our audiences.”
Musa Ruiz noted that the twist-driven storytelling of Korean dramas aligns with UNIMÁS’s edgier, more experimental strategy and complements the company’s broader ecosystem. She positioned K-dramas as a “natural extension” of the network’s long-running international slate that has included Turkish series and acclaimed imports from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and beyond.