[NEWS] Heading to the Ground heads out with a whimper

After suffering through widespread acting criticism of its leading man, Jung Yunho and dismal single digit ratings, MBC's Heading to the Ground finally headed out of tv screens on the 4th in dismal fashion.

According to TNS Media Korea on the 5th, the finale episode rating was only 4.3% while the average rating for the whole series was 5.2%. The drama had ended much earlier with 16 episodes instead of the scheduled 20 after MBC decided that enough was enough, especially with the poor ratings. Competing dramas like KBS2TV's IRIS and SBS's You're Beautiful continue to do well respectively with ratings of 30.7% and 9.8% respectively.

There was great anticipation for Heading to the Ground at the beginning as it was the leader of TVXQ, Yunho's acting debut and he was partnered with co-stars like Go Ara, Lee Yoon Ji, Lee Sang Yoon, etc. In addition, the drama was about soccer which was one of Korea's favourite sports after baseball.

However that anticipation soon faded with the inconsistent cliched storyline and sometimes bordering on the absurd. But at least, it doesn't have the dubious honor of being the lowest rated drama of 2009, which still belongs to Dream (also sports drama).

Having just secured their leading lady, Yoon So Yi, MBC will broadcast their new drama, Hero which co-stars Lee Junki from 11th November onwards for their Wed-Thus drama slot. But even with the star power of Lee Junki, it's going to be a tall order to claw back the rating deficit left behind by it's predecessor drama.