Doctor X

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This SBS Friday–Saturday drama transplants TV Asahi's Doctor-X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon to a Korean hospital, following Gye Su-jeong, a surgeon dispatched to a university hospital by a doctor-staffing agency, as she clashes with the physicians who wield power there.

SBS premiered the series on October 9, 2026, and airs it Fridays and Saturdays at 9:50 p.m. for a total of 12 episodes. It is produced by Studio S, Studio Dragon and HighZium Studio. The original is a TV Asahi drama starring Ryoko Yonekura as freelance surgeon Michiko Daimon; it aired for seven seasons from 2012 to 2021, and the series concluded with the film Doctor-X the Movie (original Japanese title: Gekijōban Doctor-X FINAL), released in December 2024. TV Asahi announced on December 12, 2025, that it had signed a Korean remake deal and that production had begun, and the original's executive producer, Satoko Uchiyama, said she had been discussing remake possibilities with producers in Korea and North America. Ratings, by Nielsen Korea's nationwide household measure, were 11.4% for episode 1 and 14.9% for episode 2.

Lee Jung-rim directs the series and Pyeon Seong-geun wrote the screenplay. Lee previously directed SBS's VIP (2019) and Revenant (2023), written by Kim Eun-hee, as well as the Netflix series As You Stood By (2025). Of the subtitle newly added for the Korean version, Hayan Mafia-ui Sidae (“Age of the White Mafia”), Lee said that a hospital is ultimately one huge organization too, and that the word “noir” was attached in order to depict situations where many people's convictions and desires collide. Lee also said that because Japan and Korea differ in setting and systems, the team took only the most appealing premises from the original and changed a great deal so that Korean viewers could accept it. Filming began on December 4, 2025. Namgung In, an emergency medicine specialist and writer, took part as the on-set medical adviser.

Kim Ji-won plays Gye Su-jeong, the star surgeon of a doctor-staffing agency, and Lee Jung-eun plays the agency's head, Jang Hee-sook. Not related to Gye Su-jeong by blood, Jang is something like an aunt to her as well as her business partner, and according to TV Asahi's announcement, the character corresponds to Akira Kanbara, head of the doctor-staffing agency in the original. Son Hyun-joo plays Bu Seung-kwon, who becomes the new director of Guseo University Hospital; Kim Woo-seok plays surgical intern Park Tae-kyung; and Lee Jin-hee, Kim Young-min, Lee Sung-wook and Choi Kwang-il, among others, appear as the hospital's medical staff and people from its foundation. Episode 1 opens with a flashback of Gye Su-jeong looking at a medical facility abroad engulfed in flames. Taken on as a temporary surgeon at the short-staffed Guseo University Hospital, on her first day she publicly objects when hospital director Kim Myung-seop (Kim Jong-gu), who is about to retire, prepares to perform open surgery on an elderly patient, insisting that laparoscopic surgery is the right approach, and then leaves work at exactly 6 p.m. She is fired over this, but Bu Seung-kwon, now the new hospital director, calls her back, and Jang Hee-sook presents a contract stating that Gye “will not do” any of it — rounds, staff dinners, help with research papers — and that she “will not fail, either.” The scene corresponds to the signature lines Michiko Daimon repeated in the original, “Itashimasen” (“I won't do it”) and “Watashi, shippai shinai node” (“Because I never fail”). In episode 2, she clashes with surgery professor Do Yoon-sik (Kim Young-min) over operations on a VIP patient and an emergency patient.

It is Kim Ji-won's first drama in two years, since tvN's Queen of Tears in 2024. At the press conference, she said she took the role because she felt it would be an honor to have a medical drama in her filmography, and that for Gye Su-jeong she cut her hair into a bob and stripped away as much of the glamour of her previous work as she could. Before the premiere, she said through SBS that she sees Gye Su-jeong not so much as a genius but as someone who has given her all out of sheer earnestness. Lee Jung-eun said she had been looking for a chance to work with Kim Ji-won, and described Jang Hee-sook as a character who shows the logic of capital in realistic terms. Director Lee Jung-rim said the series respects the original's basic framework and premises while reinterpreting them to bring out Korean sensibilities. After the broadcast, when some medical scenes drew criticism online over their accuracy, Namgung In noted in a social media comment that he had served as an on-set adviser and replied, “If something medically wrong shows up, you can take it that the adviser fought with the production team and lost.”

See alsoDoctor-X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon 2012Revenant 2023VIP 2019As You Stood By 2025Queen of Tears 2024

Drama Lineup editors · Fact-checked against: wikitree.co.kr, isplus.com, programs.sbs.co.kr, sportschosun.com, xportsnews.com, prtimes.jp, enews.imbc.com, formatbiz.it, tenasia.co.kr · 2026-10-16