SBS Sets February 2027 Premiere for 'Full Count,' Hoping to Follow 'Stove League' Hit

SBS is returning to viewers' screens with a new baseball drama in the tradition of 〈Stove League〉, the series that became a sensation in 2019. The network's new Friday-Saturday drama, 〈Full Count〉 (directed by Ham Jun-ho and written by Park Myeong-rang), has secured a February 2027 broadcast slot and entered full-scale production. Studio S, Betty & Creators and TPS Company are producing the series.

〈Full Count〉 follows the fierce struggle for survival of people who enter a sports battleground rife with schemes to claim a single prize: the job of professional baseball manager. Set to air in February, when there are no league games, the well-crafted sports drama is raising expectations that it will satisfy fans eager for the start of the professional baseball season.

Actors Kim Rae-won and Park Hoon have been cast as the two leads. Returning to television after four years, Kim plays Hwang Jin-ho, the acting manager of the popular Stars club, which is in danger of missing the postseason. Hwang spent most of his playing career as a backup catcher before becoming a battery coach. In a club where preference for homegrown insiders runs deep, he takes on the acting manager's job—a poisoned chalice—and plunges into turmoil.

Park, who has established himself as a skilled actor, plays Cho Dong-hee, a legendary Stars pitcher turned pitching coach who is considered the leading candidate for the next manager. Despite his illustrious career, Cho has never lifted a championship trophy as a player. He considers it humiliating to compete against Hwang, a former second-rate player, and reveals his ambition to secure the manager's job.

SBS's new Friday-Saturday drama 〈Full Count〉, depicting calculated tactical battles and power struggles in the dugout behind the spectacle on the field, will premiere in February 2027.