Ratings: The Mentalist "Sees" Its Largest Audience Yet

• Oct 29, 2008 12:01 PM ET
• by Matt Mitovich

The Mentalist

Tuesday's tale-of-the-tape:

8 pm/ET
NCIS won the hour with 17.08 million total viewers on par with last week's numbers. (P.S. Did you see that Rocky Carroll is now celebrity blogging for TVGuide.com? Yo, Rocky!) House placed second with 13.15 mil (up 350K), and topped the demos.

The Pumpkin was a little less great for Charlie Brown this year, as the Peanuts special dipped a mil to 10.4 mil. (And I'm a Grinch for even pointing that out.) Behind Biggest Loser (eight mil, up 730 thou), 90210 (3.2 mil) saw a small gain over its last, ages-ago fresh episode.

9 pm
Dancing with the Stars tacked on another mil, to deliver 17 million viewers. The Mentalist was close behind with its best numbers yet - 16.1 mil — and matched DWTS in demos. Privileged (2.16 mil) recovered from last week's plunge with a 660K rebound.

10 pm
Without a Trace gained 540 thou to win the hour with 12.14 million viewers. SVU dipped a bit to claim second with 9.2 mil. Eli Stone, which is hoping against all hope for a back-9 pick-up, dropped 830K, to 7.67 mil.