It’s nice that Simon Baker is still eligible for a raise. He deserves one. His freshman drama The Mentalist, TV’s No. 1 new show, set another series-best in ratings Tuesday night, with 19.7 million viewers. That’s CBS’ best performance in that Tuesday at 9 p.m. time slot with a regularly scheduled program since 1995. Elsewhere on the dial, things weren’t quite so cheery: Fox’s American Idol was down 6 percent from last Tuesday, while Fringe dipped 23 percent. On ABC, an hour of Charlie Brown-themed Valentine’s Day programming did better than an hour of Scrubs, which continues to dwell below the 5 million viewer mark. (We won’t even bother to discuss True Beauty.) NBC’s The Biggest Loser: Couples lost 11 percent of its crowd from last week. The CW’s 90210 and Privileged fell, too — 5 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
| Time | Show | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 8 p.m. | American Idol (Fox) NCIS (CBS) The Biggest Loser: Couples (NBC) Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (ABC) 90210 (The CW) |
24.9 18.0 9.3 5.1 2.4 |
| 8:30 p.m. | A Charlie Brown Valentine (ABC) | 4.7 |
| 9 p.m. | The Mentalist (CBS) Fringe (Fox) Scrubs (ABC) Privileged (The CW) |
19.7 9.8 4.6 1.4 |
| 9:30 p.m. | Scrubs (ABC) | 4.2 |
| 10 p.m. | Without a Trace (CBS) Dateline NBC (NBC) True Beauty (ABC) |
14.3 11.3 3.7 |
More TV News:
Michael Slezak recaps American Idol
Jean Bentley recaps The Biggest Loser: Couples
Privileged: Save it (if Robert Buckley can stay)
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The Mentalist was frickin hilarious last night. “There’s no business like Cho business”. LOL
I completely agree with Gretchen. The show is very humorous. I always feel great after watching the show. Simon Baker’s character is always doing some good deed as part of the show. Like night, he helped get two people who loved each other get back together again. He also put a rich snob back in his place by tweaking his nose. The Mentalist is the feel good show of the season!
Simon Baker is the the main feature, but the way that they are letting the other characters shine: Rigsby’s attempts to woo Van Pelt, and the unexpected treat that was Cho and his deadpan delivery in interrogation: “That’s impressive, the best I can do with one phone call is a pizza”, and his advice to the lonley waitress Katie: “Love isn’t crazy, you need to see a therapist..” great stuff and kudos to Tim Kang!
He was still called Simon Baker Denny.