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.
I can’t believe they are cancelling Human Target! It’s even better this year with the addition of the new characters. It has the combination of action, humor, character interaction and adventure that makes great shows. Shame on Fox for not giving this show some time to build an audience so they can show even more of American Idol! Maybe they should call themselves the American Idol Network! I hope a real network picks it up and it smashes whatever Fox puts up against it!
Fox wouldn’t know a good show if it bit them in the butt. This is a good show that I look forward to seeing. I hope it is not cancelled.
Maybe not the best, but one of the most entertaining … does not take itself too seriously … very charming show … wife and I both watch and would miss it … so FOX … don’t dump it! PUMP it … it hooked me after one viewing … if you get peops to watch it, they will stick with it
I don’t know where networks get their survey data from – I have never been surveyed by anyone. I’m 68 years old, have a college education, have a family, and am very active in my community. If “Human Target” and “Lie To Me” are cancelled I will be very pissed! And so will others I associate with and discuss our entertainment interests.
What a shame fox does this with good shows. It would have been better on USA or TNT
I am sick of American Idol and reality shows. How can you have ratings when you don’t give the shows a chance to get noticed with the multitude of choices and channels and no promotion. Even my DVR can’t find it with all the shuffling.
We are huge fans of Human Target. My boss is a fan as well.
I love the addition of Indira Varma as Ilsa Pucci and how her story line has progressed.
Fox needs to commit to placing the show at a consistent date and time with adequate promotion (and a longer season wouldn’t hurt).
HT needs to get back to its original grit. The additional cast members are not bad, but Ames?? While an interesting addition, she didn’t add anything to the show. Her character was just ‘there’. chance needs to get his hard self back and go save people. Get rid of the ‘fluff’. Get back to ‘business’. If I want romance, and fluff there’s Desperate Housewives. It shouldn’t be hard to fix HT. Its an original concept and a quite unique show. One sure fire way to lose viewers is to get mainstream, oh, and mess with the schedule!!! fix it and… Read more »
Watching television anymore takes a dedicated effort especially for the Fox network programming. The good shows are never given a “Chance”,& are bounced around from day to day and time to time. You need a GPS to track it and mine seems to be saying “make a right over the next cliff.” Season 2 of Human Target has been great except for the bouncing around. I had a bad feeling about it surviving though when they started promoting the sexual tension with Ielsa and Chance. In TV land once that is consummated it usually means death to the show or… Read more »
I have to say this is FOX’s own fault. This show rocks, and yet there was little-to-no marketing for this show. People don’t just stumble on shows like this…they are attracted to them. If this show is canceled, it is a huge shame.
Sad,
This is one of my favorite shows! As far as ratings go, everyone that I’ve had watch it to give it a try is still watching it. Fr0m guys at work, to ladies even my Mom is a fan! Perhaps it would do better on cable, say FX. There are a bunch of good shows there from Justified, the Closer, Leverage, and Law in Order with Jeff Goldblum. I hope it stays around and jumping from time slot to time slot!
of course, it will be cancelled, because it is NOT stupid
We need to remember that this is FOX – the network that dumped “Lone Star” after 2 episodes. (I hadn’t even found where it was yet and it was gone!) They have no loyalty to any of their shows except “American Idol” and I find that tiresome. If it were not for having a DVR who finds “Human Target” when it is on, I would have missed 1/2 of the episodes. They would run them back-to-back but it wouldn’t be listed in any TV guide that way. They would change the nights. If FOX would promote their series and stand… Read more »
Maybe if they quit shuffling the show around so much people would know when to watch. This is one of my favorite shows but I never know what day it’s going to be on. FOX needs to get someone who make a schedule and stick to it. In my opinion American Idol should have been cancelled years ago, or better yet, put it on MTV. They may as well rename the Fox channel the AI channel, that’s all they ever promote.
This is one of the best shows on TV. FanTAStic cast. Guess a telltale sign it was going downhill is when they changed the great original theme song. This is one show I look forward to every week and waited patiently for the second season. If Fox dumps it someone should leap at the chance to pick it up. I agree with others…so sick of reality tv and then you get a great show like this they want to dump
Dude, . . . Fox sucks, and this runaround their giving the fans is totallly unprofessional. Here’s an idea: try committing to a good show and standing behind it long enough for it to find its legs. Some of the most successful scripted TV shows in the last 20 years took some time and promotion to get off the ground. Don’t look for that from Fox though, they only promote american idle (not a misspelling, just an opinion) and wait for legitimate networks to develope and promote a show to success until it goes into syndication and then play the… Read more »