TVSquad

Looks like CBS has a hit on its hands.

The Mentalist, the Tuesday night Simon Baker drama, has just been given the green light for a full season. The show is averaging 15.4 million viewers an episode, which is great considering it's in its first season and there are 22 other police procedurals on the network right now.

But The Mentalist is a bit different than those shows. This show runs completely on the personality of Baker, even if he does have a team of investigators that he is part of. The show is really counting on Baker to sell this character, to be charming and intelligent and funny and all that. Plots and scripts can take a show to great places, but if the lead character doesn't work it can really tilt a show out of balance. Baker makes this character work.

• At 8, CBS has the season premiere of NCIS, followed by the series premiere of The Mentalist and the season premiere of Without A Trace.
• ABC has the series premiere of Opportunity Knocks at 8, then a new, two-hour Dancing with the Stars.
• FOX has new episodes of House and Fringe.
• NBC has a new, two-hour Biggest Loser at 8, followed by the season premiere of Law and Order: SVU.
• ABC Family has a new Lincoln Heights at 8, then a new Greek.
• Also at 8: ESPN has two new episodes of The World Series of Poker.
• At 9, PBS has a new American Masters.
• There's a new Eureka on Sci-Fi at 9, then a new ECW.
• Food Network has a new Food Detectives at 9, followed by a new Road Tasted with The Neelys.
• At 10, FX has a new episode of The Shield.
• Travel Channel has a new Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk show listings.

A CBS press release landed in my inbox today with this earth-shattering news: CBS's fall programming ads (20 total) will be featured exclusively in People's Sept. 22 issue.

From the release: "In a special arrangement with the magazine, CBS will be the exclusive broadcast advertiser in the issue, on stands Sept. 12." Of course, that's right before the launch of CBS's new fall lineup.

And it sounds like this might be a first. George Schweitzer, president of CBS Marketing Group says, "CBS has long valued its relationship with People, and we're elated that they worked with us to pull off this first-time strategy to be the sole broadcast advertiser in this well-timed issue." You know, whatever. Blah, blah, blah.

So why should we care? Honestly, I really don't. I just keep thinking, People? What, they couldn't come up with anything snappier? Like, I dunno ... maybe Entertainment Weekly? Vanity Fair? I guess with 43 million readers, they'll reach a lot of people in People.

The four CBS show panels on Friday involved four of the five new programs the network is rolling out in the fall (there was no panel for Gary Unmarried, or whatever they're calling it today, because Jay Mohr and his wife Nikki Cox are renewing their vows overseas). While the panels for The Mentalist, The Ex List, Eleventh Hour, and Worst Week had their moments, none of them were particularly newsworthy or interesting.

At least Diane Ruggiero, the creator of The Ex List, was entertaining enough to keep me from jabbing a pen in my arm to keep me awake. In fact, she might have actually convinced me to watch The Lake House, as long as I have a drink in my hand.

Are you anxiously awaiting news of who was in that SUV that exploded? Still fraught with worry over how Gibbs is going to get his team back together? Or maybe you are just excited that Survivor is finally going to be beamed into your living room in glorious HD. Well, you can start making plans for your fall scheduling now. The eye network has released the schedule of premieres for their new and returning shows.

I'm a little concerned about two things on the schedule. First, The New Adventures Of Old Christine and Project Gary lead into Criminal Minds on Wednesday nights. That's an odd pairing, and I don't think bodes well for either of the comedies. And second, The Unit gets shuffled off to Sunday at 10? NCIS and The Unit have done remarkably well paired up on Tuesdays. Good for The Mentalist, not so much for The Unit. The whole thing kicks off with Survivor on September 18th. The rest of the schedule is after the jump.

Of all the networks, CBS has the most new shows on deck, including two new comedies, Worst Week and Project Gary, and two new dramas, The Ex-List and The Mentalist. Another drama is set for mid-season, Harper's Island.

We've had a chance to look over these new TV shows, and by and large, it's a fascinating bunch. Also adventurous. No procedurals. More character-driven programming it seems. CBS seems determined not to rest on their laurels.

Read what we thought about these advance screeners, bearing in mind that things are liable to change before the shows start to air.

So the networks have given their upfront presentations. It's not easy to pick which shows look the best. Sure, we can base our judgments on what "type" of show we usually like anyway or a producer that's involved or someone who is in the lead. But we're still just basing it on a description (or a snippet from each show). It really comes down to the writing and the execution in general.

Having said all that, here are the shows that look great to me, based on the upfront description, the cast and crew involved, and how my tastes run in general.

Yesterday, CBS presented their new schedule for 2008-09. If you'd like to see a sample of the new shows coming to CBS next year, click over to TV Week. There are clips from Eleventh Hour, The Ex-List, Harper's Island, Project Gary, The Mentalist and Worst Week. I've given them a once-over (actually, I watched them more than once) and here's my impressions. That means if you want to watch them fresh without my observations mucking up yours, take a look at them first before reading on.

As someone who was a regular watcher of The Guardian, it makes me happy to see that the star of that show is coming back to the home screens. Simon Baker will star in the CBS drama The Mentalist. The pilot has been given the go-ahead by the network, which mean Simon could be back on the schedule by next fall (if the show is picked up).

The Mentalist sounds like it should be something like a Kreskin extravaganza, but it's not. Instead it's described as the story of Patrick Jane, a man with heightened skills of observation who uses his talents to solve crimes.