This season, CBS moved The Mentalist from Thursdays to Sunday nights, into (cancelled) CSI: Miami’s former timeslot. This move understandably made fans very nervous.
The Mentalist’s ratings have taken a serious hit this season. The premiere represented one of the worst showings in the series’ history and the numbers for subsequent episodes have dropped even lower.
CBS will surely take football over-runs into consideration when considering the show’s fate but it’s worth noting that CSI: Miami’s ratings were also impacted by football — and performed better. In its last season, Miami averaged a 2.1 rating with 9.85 million. That’s significantly better than The Mentalist’s current season average below.
What do you think? Will The Mentalist be cancelled this season? Share your comments below.
Here are the CBS season averages as of Thursday, November 8, 2012:
| CBS non-scripted TV shows |
18-49 demo rating (actual) |
Viewers in millions |
Ratings pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Survivor: Philippines | 2.9 (2.88) | 10.34 | cycle 25 ratings |
| 60 Minutes | 2.7 (2.67) | 13.73 | season 45 ratings |
| The Amazing Race | 2.6 (2.57) | 9.55 | cycle 21 ratings |
| Undercover Boss | 1.5 (1.50) | 7.96 | season 4 ratings |
| 48 Hours | 1.0 (0.96) | 4.67 | season 26 ratings |
These charts incorporate the daily final CBS show ratings (reported by Nielsen) and are sorted by the 18-49 demographic. Network advertisers typically prize those viewers most and so will pay more to reach them. There’s lots of information that the networks take into consideration when cancelling or renewing a TV series but the ratings are the biggest factor. The higher the ratings, the better chance that the show will be renewed. And yes, they take it into account when a show airs on a Friday or Saturday night.
For the status of your favorite CBS shows, check out this page.
Want more posts like this? Here are the other networks: ABC | The CW | FOX | NBC
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the mentalist is my absolutely favorite program–I have tried to watch it every week as you have attempted to obliterate it-I haven’t dvr’d it- I have had to record 3 programs so that if I feel asleep, that I could record it-there is nothing with any intelligence on tv-this is it. If you cancel this program-I cannot tell you how very upset I will be.
Please keep this show on. I enjoy the cast and the Patrick Jane character. Red John killing Jane’s family and his wanting revenge – okay – was interesting, but I find it “getting old”. Time for Jane to evolve – catch Red John; and have another villain, etc.Or, have Red John go dormant for awhile and have some other cases to showcase the team’s synergy and Jane’s wit. I understand the initial storyline – Jane works w/CBI because of his family tradegy – I just think there needs to be something else developing – or the show is doomed. How many more years can he chase Red John if most episodes are about just that?
Does anyone else realize that the Homeland Security Agent that has popped in and out of cases involving Lorelei Martins this season on “The Mentalist” is none other than Red John?
where is hightower in mentalist? she was there then gone off the show. she coming back????
I agree with POI, Susan & Lauren! Great characters with AWESOME chemistry! CBS should have left Mentalist on Thursdays after Person of Interest! They had a GREAT thing going back to back BUT they messed it up as they have done MANY times in the past!
I AM VERY TIRED OF RED JOHN. Have stopped watching the Mentalist. Too bad because I like Simon Baker.
You obviously don’t understand the show and what motivates Jane to get out of bed in the morning……RED JOHN!!! His reason for existing. His sole mission in life is to kill him…without that he is not the same person. So if you are tired of red john you don’t understand the show.
Jane doesn’t exist without red john…there can be no light without darkness,no beuty without the beast….tiger,tiger!
When a network gets a good show, the first thing they do is start moving it around so the viewer following has to keep looking for it. Mentalist was fine on Thursdays and should have been left there,. If something is not broken, don’t fix it. Watch this show everweek. Please renew.
How does one go about getting CBS to actually listen to its audience? With so many stupid reality shows on TV these days, I really can’t take another one of my favorite shows being cancelled. Fox had a show called Human Target that got cancelled after the second season. For some unknown reason, Fox retooled the show after the most awesome first season and turned a lot of the fans off. Instead of recognizing the fact that they were wrong and restoring it to it’s original format, the idiots cancelled the show. I have season one on DVD and recently watched the first four episodes and it was absolutely great. Action packed from beginning to end. The most wonderful show! The Mentalist and Person of Interest are my two favorites now and I am so afraid they will be cancelled. I think if that happens, I will no longer watch anything on CBS, just like I no longer watch anything on NBC.
If the Mentalist is cancelled it won’t be because the show isn’t any good anymore. It will be the fault of the CBS executives who made the decision to move it to Sunday night. To me, this is like the kiss of death. Why would they move it from Thursday, following POI to Sunday? Half the time I don’t remember that it is coming on. Thankfully, I DVR it every week. I like Elementary but it just an imitation of the Mentalist. CBS, please restore the balance and put the Mentalist back to Thursday nights where it belongs and move Elementary to some other night.
You ask: “What do you think? Will The Mentalist be cancelled this season?”
I have a mixed reaction. First, I love “The Mentalist” and have followed it from its first season. But second: The way that [Exec Producer] Bruno Heller and his cronies have been behaving lately, perhaps it would be BEST if the show did get cancelled.
If you’re from another planet and don’t already know, “The Mentalist” revolves around the story of a Sherlock Holmes-type detective (Patrick Jane) and his search for the man who killed his wife and daughter, a serial killer known as “Red John.”
My beef with the program’s showrunners is that they keep dragging out the lo-o-o-ong search for Red John, now in its FIFTH YEAR… and they should have wound up the mystery long ago. But no, they keep dragging it out, airing weekly episodes that have nothing to do with Red John, as they keep trying to stretch out the series’ shelf life.
In sum: I loved the show in its first three seasons, but it should have ended with the spectacular shoot-out in the Season 3 finale. That would have made sense. Instead, Bruno and his pals have decided not to kill the goose that lays golden eggs, and insist on dragging the story out to infinity.
Cheers,
Dan
Do not agree. The show started with Red John and should finish with him being caught. The Red John story arc is the reason the show has such emotional depth and is the reason the show is a lot better than many episodic cop shows in existence nowadays. Most Cop procedurals do not have very solid overhanging story lines and over time they suffer because of this.
Saying that the writers should get rid of Red John before the show draws to a close would be like saying that BBC’s “Sherlock” and CBS’s “Elementary” should finish off the Moriarty storyline before those programs end. Not a good idea.
What overhanging storyline will ever top the one that involves the death of Jane’s family and the reason he works with the CBI in the first place? If they get rid of Red John before the end of the series, the show will never be able to top its former glory. The Mentalist should end on a high and not on some shadow of its former self.
If it has been drug out to long you can tell me who red john is right? If not and 8 am pretty sure you can’t ,I think it still has legs and is one of the best kept mysteries on television these days….I am pretty good at figuring these things out and I don’t have a clue. I observe and guess but stay intrigued. So far I noticed all the women who show up on the show have red hair and when van pelt first meets jane her face drops,also I saw her hug lisbon one time and slip something in her pocket. Sorry for rambling…anyone else notice this?
I love all the episodes that Do Not deal with RED JOHN. At this point I no longer care who he or she is. It’s ridiculous to think that with all the technology out there they still don’t know who red John is. When the story line is RJ I skip it until the following week. And FYI I love Elementary and Persons of Interest.
You have to remember that the idiots whom run the networks are like the 3rain monkeys (Blind, deaf & dumb). Everyone unfortunately has had ample notice since cbs announced the new Sunday nite time slot. Its sad but that cbs’ wisdom. The new time slot is nearly impossible to even Tivo it!, as guide data never gets updated in time for the delayed start time thus most or all of the episode fails to get recorded. I wrote cbs and they blaa blaa blaa’ed me back with the usual crap about affiates having to be synced after the football games. But NO answer about a solution. I finally set my Tivo to record a 2 hour block from 10pmthe to midnite so I would definitely be successful in recording The Mentalist. I also noticed a lot of repeat episodes as well. So it looks as if cbs has it on the same path as Ghost Whisperer. CBS SUX!! I have already stopped watching nbc because of the same crap. Now this and ABC flushing Last Resort. What’s next CBS??
CBS putting a show on Sundays at 10:00 with late sporting events and competition with NFL football in the fall and MLB baseball in the spring is a recipe for cancellation. CBS put “Cold Case” on this spot, and it was canceled. They did the same with “Without a Trace,” and “CSI: Miami!” They all got canceled.
Put that tripe “Elementary” on in this spot! Put “The Mentalist” back to Thursdays at 10! I almost think RED JOHN is running the programming!
Lol!
I love Elementary. I like the partnership between Holmes and Watson. Jt
To think of one of the best characters in TV History being cancelled is simply nuts. Patrick Jane is so unique. Such a mixture of a love of life and tremendous pain/guilt. Baker plays him to perfection. Plus, it’s one of the few shows without gory bodies and blood every week. I wish wish wish a cable channel would have picked it up instead of CBS. I don’t know where this show went wrong but recently I had a biopsy done and one of the things I thought about when waiting for the results was not living long enough to find out who Red John is. That’s saying something. Biopsy was negative, thankfully. Perhaps they need to do something drastic like make Lisbon and Jane captives of Red John in like one room and every week we see how they cope with the situation and with trying to out think Red John who talks to them and taunts them. Let’s get down and dirty and find out who Red John is and where Jane/Lisbon are heading. Or if the show is gonna end, give us a good 10-12 eps dealing with Red John, not just one ep where we find out.
The Mentalist is one of the few shows I love, please do not cancel it!!
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