‘The Mentalist’ Finds Fall Home On MNT

MyNetworkTV is adding Warner Bros.’ The Mentalist with Simon Baker to its lineup this fall, the programming service is announcing this afternoon. MNT earlier this spring said it is also adding The Walking Dead to its fall primetime lineup.

The Walking Dead airs on cable network AMC and is one of TV’s most-watched shows. Its fourth season finale in March had an audience of 15.7 million viewers. It will air back-to-back on MNT’s Wednesday lineup.

“It was time to raise the bar for MyNetworkTV,” says Paul Franklin, executive vice president at MNT. “The Law & Orders, both SVU and CI, have been a fixture on MyNetworkTV. By bringing on The Walking Dead, arguably the No. 1 drama on all of television, we are giving the broadcast TV audience a chance to get to know and love this show.”

Two episodes of The Mentalist will air on Thursdays. Original episodes of the drama air on CBS, which has renewed it for a seventh season. On the show, Simon Baker stars as an FBI agent with nearly superhuman observation skills.

“The Mentalist has not been seen in syndication before,” says Franklin. “We’re putting it on Thursday night primetime, where it had so much success on CBS.”

Returning to MNT’s schedule this fall are back-to-back episodes of Law & Order: SVU on Mondays. Law & Order: Criminal Intent is moving to Tuesdays from Wednesdays. Bones is moving from Tuesdays to Fridays.

“We are providing a strong primetime lineup with highly recognizable shows that are saleable in the marketplace,” says Franklin.

House and Monk will not return to the schedule.

In the just-concluded broadcast TV season, MNT ranked No. 7 among all broadcast and cable TV networks in the adult 18-49 and adult 25-54 demographics, according to MNT’s analysis of Nielsen ratings.

MNT, which debuted in 2006 with five-day-a-week dramas, is carried on stations reaching 97% of TV homes, including on Fox TV Stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, Houston, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Orlando and Charlotte.

Last year, Fox extended its deal with MNT through the 2015-16 TV season.