SBS Drama Awards 2023: My Demon's Kim Yoo Jung and Song Kang win Best Couple post controversy

Kim Yoo-jung accepted the trophy on behalf of Song Kang, who who was absent from the ceremony.

The top Korean dramas and actors of the year were announced on December 29 at the SBS Drama Awards 2023. Despite controversy over the Best Couple award, the gong was finally awarded to My Demon stars Kim Yoo Jung and Song Kang. The 2023 nominees for Best Couple were The Secret Romantic Guesthouse stars Ryeoun and Shin Ye Eun, Dr. Romantic 3 stars Ahn Hyo Seop and Lee Sung Kyung, and My Demon' stars Song Kang and Kim Yoo Jung.

Earlier this month, SBS held an online vote for this year's Best Couple award on its official website from December 18 to 27. Song Kang and Kim Yoo Jung were the overwhelming winners of the online vote, with fans noting that they received almost three times the votes as the couple in second place.

However, when online voting ended on December 27, SBS released a statement announcing that the Best Couple award would be determined based not only on the results of the online vote but also on several other criteria. This announcement led to speculation that SBS had changed the award criteria to avoid giving the award to Song Kang, who was previously reported not to be attending the awards ceremony.

Earlier in the week, SBS responded to rumours of Song Kang's absence by stating that he was "adjusting his schedule." On December 29, the day of the awards, SBS firmly denied the speculation that they had changed the award criteria. Song Kang and Kim Yoo Jung ended up winning the award. They also won the Top Excellence Award (Romance or Rom-Com Miniseries) award.

This year's Daesang (Grand Prize) went to two winners - Lee Je Hoon for his performance in Taxi Driver 2 and Kim Tae Ri for her performance in Revenant. The Top Excellence Award (Multi-Season Series) was given to Ahn Hyo Seop ("Dr. Romantic 3") and Lee Sung Kyung ("Dr. Romantic 3").

The Netizen's Best 2023 SBS Drama went to Taxi Driver 2. Revenant's Jin Sun Kyu won the Best Performance Award.

'Payback: Money and Power' team skipped the awards to respect the late Lee Sun-kyun, who starred in the film Parasite. He passed away recently. Singer Hwasa changed her performance to pay homage to the actor.

The event was held at the SBS Prism Tower in Sangam-dong, Seoul.