After Chuck hits an all-time ratings low, daylight savings has started hurting television behemoths like American Idol... So why is Human Target apparently immune, and what can other shows learn from it?


The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed blog noted Human Target's strong performance, pointing out that the show even managed to win its time slot, unusually. So what makes Target so unusual?

Firstly, it stood out in its timeslot in terms of genre (It was up against two comedies and NBC's medical drama Trauma), but so did the less successful Chuck; what it offered that Chuck didn't, though, was a done-in-one storyline complete in one hour (Admittedly, one that had continuity call-outs to earlier episodes, but nothing a new viewer would find problematic). With that idea having kept NBC's Law & Order and CBS' CSI franchises not only alive, but surprisingly strong in the ratings, for years, is Human Target a pointer towards a post-Lost direction for genre television that'll be more successful for networks?