Agent Kim Reactivated Ratings: SBS Drama Opens With 2026’s Highest Miniseries Premiere

SBS’s new Friday-Saturday drama Agent Kim Reactivated opened with a 9.5 percent nationwide rating for its June 26 premiere, making the debut episode the highest-rated miniseries premiere of 2026. The first episode also ranked first in its time slot across all channels and became the week’s most-watched miniseries, based on Nielsen Korea figures reported by Soompi.¹

The ratings result gives the So Ji-sub-led action drama a strong start in a crowded 2026 miniseries field. Newsis also reported the same 9.5 percent nationwide figure and described the June 26 broadcast as the highest first-episode rating among all miniseries aired in 2026.²

Agent Kim Reactivated Ratings Start at 9.5 Percent

The confirmed ratings picture is unusually clear across the available reports. Agent Kim Reactivated began at 9.5 percent nationwide, while Ize, via Naver Entertainment, added that the premiere recorded 9.8 percent in the Seoul metropolitan area and reached a peak of 11.3 percent.³ Those figures place the drama’s launch above the usual baseline for a new first episode and underline why the premiere has been framed as a notable ratings event.

The show’s opening performance is also notable because the strongest claims are tied to specific rankings, not just a single raw number. Soompi reported that episode 1 was first in its time slot across all channels and also the week’s most-watched miniseries.¹ Newsis separately reported that the 9.5 percent debut represented the highest first-episode rating for any 2026 miniseries.²

The Seoul metropolitan and peak figures provide additional context for the premiere’s reach. The 9.8 percent metropolitan rating was slightly above the nationwide average, while the 11.3 percent peak shows that the episode climbed into double digits at its strongest point.³ The sources do not provide a full minute-by-minute breakdown, so the available picture is limited to the published Nielsen Korea figures.

What the Drama Is About

Agent Kim Reactivated stars So Ji-sub as Kim Do-hyeon, a former elite agent who is living as a savings-bank employee before his old combat instincts return. The Korea Times reported that the drama held a press conference at SBS headquarters in Mok-dong, Seoul, ahead of the June 26 premiere, where So was introduced in the role of the former agent leading the action thriller.⁴

The drama’s central premise follows an apparently ordinary father whose daughter goes missing, forcing him to revive black-ops skills from his past. Netflix’s official listing identifies Agent Kim Reactivated as a 2026 Korean action series starring So Ji-sub, Choi Dae-hoon, and Yoon Kyung-ho, and categorizes it as a Korean webtoon-based action and crime drama.⁵

SBS Entertainment News reported before the premiere that the series is based on a popular Naver webtoon and follows an ordinary father who becomes dangerous while trying to recover his only daughter.⁶ That setup connects the show’s action framework with a family-driven search story, a point also reflected in the early episode 2 preview.

Ize reported that the second episode would show So Ji-sub’s character retrieving a hidden “007 briefcase” while searching for his missing daughter.³ The same report included a production team comment saying that So portrayed “a father’s desperation to find his daughter” with cold charisma and explosive action.³

So Ji-sub’s Return to Action

The drama also marks a return to the action genre for So Ji-sub. At the pre-premiere press conference covered by The Korea Times, So said, “I really wanted to do an action drama again.”⁴ The comment frames Agent Kim Reactivated as a project built partly around his established action-screen presence, though the available sources focus more on the ratings and premise than on production details.

Director Yi Seung-young also addressed comparisons to father-rescue thrillers at the press conference. Referring to Taken, Yi said the film is “a real-time tracking thriller about a father finding his daughter,” while Agent Kim Reactivated is “a 10-hour story.”⁴ The distinction positions the SBS drama as a longer-form serialized version of a similar emotional engine: a parent searching for a missing child while confronting danger.

For international viewers, The Korea Times reported that the series is available on Netflix.⁴ Netflix’s official page also lists the series under the English title Agent Kim Reactivated and identifies it as a webtoon-based action and crime drama.⁵

The first reported ratings for Agent Kim Reactivated give SBS a clear early win: a 9.5 percent nationwide start, first place in its time slot, and the strongest miniseries premiere rating reported in 2026. With episode 2 already previewed around Kim Do-hyeon’s search for his missing daughter, the drama’s next test will be whether it can sustain that opening momentum in subsequent broadcasts.

About the Author

Cloi Lee

Author

View All Posts