Christopher Chance and company have been struggling in the ratings this season and FOX isn’t exactly helping them out. On Wednesday, the pair of scheduled Human Target episodes were pre-empted by President Obama’s speech from Tucson. Those episodes have been rescheduled for tonight, an evening when viewership is much lower and many fans of the show will probably miss them.

Now, FOX has decided to expand the Wednesday, January 26th edition of American Idol to two hours. As a result, the previously scheduled episode of Human Target will be bumped to Monday, January 31st. It’ll precede the final Lie to Me of the season (and possibly the series). The network hasn’t announced it yet but, if the two-hour Idol on the 26th is a success, FOX could certainly decide to expand the next couple episodes which would displace the last two episodes of Human Target’s season. While the series was once going to get a ratings boost from an Idol lead-in, it’s now getting shuffled around instead.

It would seem that FOX has all but given up on the series. At this point, it’s hard to blame them. The ratings certainly don’t warrant a third round of episodes. Season one averaged a 2.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 9.6 million viewers and it was almost cancelled with those numbers. Thus far, season two has averaged just a pitiful 1.6 rating and 6.04 million total viewers. Human Target is currently the lowest-rated scripted show on the network.

It seems that Human Target is already destined to be cancelled and these latest schedule changes will be the final blow.

What do you think? Will Human Target be renewed for season three or cancelled? What would you suggest doing to increase the ratings?

Image courtesy FOX.