'The Mentalist' opens with 3.7m

Five's new crime drama The Mentalist made a strong start last night, early ratings figures suggest.

The US import - starring Simon Baker as psychic-turned-detective Patrick Jane - opened to 3.69m (16.7%) at 9pm.

The show was the most successful ever launch of any US drama shown on Five. CSI premiered with 2.41m in 2001, CSI: Miami took 3.09m in 2003 and 3.35m tuned in for CSI: New York in 2005. House opened with 1.97m in 2005, NCIS logged 1.63m in 2006 and the debut of Prison Break brought in 1.85m in 2006.

ITV1's The Truth About Superskinny Pregnancies, which saw Louise Redknapp examine the pressure on women to stay thin while pregnant, logged 2.51m (11.4%).

The latest episode of The Bill pulled in 4.34m (19.8%) for ITV1, while Channel 4's Ten Years Younger: The Challenge averaged 1.85m (8.4%) during the hour.

Elsewhere, the final episode of E4's Skins was seen by 698k at 10pm, while The Justin Lee Collins Show put in 277k (1.8%) for ITV2.

Living's screening of Jade: With Love, a special tribute to the late Jade Goody, averaged 531k (2.6%) during the 9pm hour.

Source: DigitalSpy