MBC logs highest viewership on election night
Joint exit polls by broadcasters miss mark, with final tally showing tighter race
South Korea's three major broadcast networks, KBS, MBC and SBS, aired marathon coverage of Tuesday's presidential election running some eight hours, with MBC emerging as the clear ratings leader.
According to Nielsen Korea, MBC's 'Election 2025' drew the highest nationwide household viewership across all parts of its six-segment broadcast. Its ratings climbed steadily, with Part 1 drawing 4.3 percent, peaking at 14.5 percent in Part 3, and concluding at 5.4 percent in Part 6. MBC was the only network among the three to record double-digit ratings.
KBS' election coverage, titled 'Vote That Changes My Life" (translated), saw more modest numbers, starting at 2.4 percent and reaching a high of 5.2 percent in Part 2 before tapering off to 2.0 percent.
The SBS special, '2025 People's Vote" (translated), posted still lower figures, opening at 1.4 percent and peaking at 3.7 percent in Parts 3 and 4, before ending at 1.2 percent.
MBC's ratings dominance follows a strong performance during April's general election, when it led all Korean broadcasters with a viewership high of 11.7 percent.
With election night coverage stretching eight to nine hours, each broadcaster introduced distinct features to retain viewer interest. MBC drew attention for a cinematic countdown video that wove together major moments in Korean history. One segment linked a 1946 speech by independence leader Kim Gu with BTS frontman RM's 2018 address to the United Nations -- an editing choice that garnered considerable online engagement for blending historical gravitas with contemporary cultural relevance.
SBS leaned into playful visual effects, incorporating pop culture parodies, including references to "Squid Game" and the viral Pikki Pikki cheerleading dance, both of which gained traction on social media.
Meanwhile, the accuracy of exit polls conducted jointly by KBS, MBC and SBS was called into question due to the significant difference between the exit polls and the final vote tally. The poll surveyed 80,146 voters at 325 polling stations nationwide on the day of the election, between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. It carried a margin of error of plus or minus 0.8 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
The poll projected a decisive win for Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung with 51.7 percent of the vote, compared to 39.3 percent for Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party -- a projected gap of 12.4 percentage points.
However, the final tally showed a narrower margin: Lee received 49.42 percent of the votes, while Kim garnered 41.15 percent, which amounted to an actual gap of 8.27 percentage points.
The low accuracy of the exit polls is largely interpreted as stemming from high turnout during early voting, which took place May 29 and 30 and saw a participation rate of 34.74 percent. Since exit polling is conducted only on Election Day, early voters' preferences may have been harder to capture.
To account for potential discrepancies stemming from the early voting turnout, an additional 11,500 people were surveyed by phone and correction factors were applied to the data. Despite these efforts, the broadcasters ultimately failed to deliver an accurate prediction.
Some politicians attributed the miscalculation to the influence of so-called 'shy conservatives.' During a radio broadcast on Wednesday, Woo Sang-ho, co-chair of the Democratic Party of Korea's election campaign committee, remarked, 'It has been clearly confirmed that shy conservatives made up about 5 to 5.5 percent,' noting that 'voters in this group, who had been hesitant to cast their ballots, ultimately turned out in full force.'
In the 2022 presidential election, exit poll results showed Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung with 47.8 percent and People Power Party candidate Yoon Suk-yeol with 48.4 percent. The actual vote count closely aligned, with Lee receiving 47.8 percent and Yoon 48.5 percent.
The early voting turnout during the 2022 presidential election reached 36.93 percent nationwide. The additional phone surveys were conducted to improve accuracy and were credited with producing exit poll estimates that were nearly spot-on.
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