Our first hit of the new fall season

... would appear to be CBS's "The Mentalist," which debuted opposite "Dancing with the Stars" and "Fringe" with 15.55 million viewers. (It wasn't so strong in the 18-49 demo, though - even "Fringe," which had nearly six million fewer viewers, had more in that age bracket that is celebrated over all other humans on the planet.) But CBS's "NCIS," the little sleeper hit that could, continues to boggle the mind - opening its sixth season last night, it had 17.72 million viewers, nearly four million more than its premiere a year ago.

Night two of "Dancing with the Stars, and Kim Kardashian, Too" averaged 18.2 million viewers over its two hours, but ABC's "Opportunity Knocks" was a no-show in its premiere with 6.63 million.

In the "Physician, Heal Thyself" department, Fox's "House" took a hearty tumble with 12.14 million viewers, down 6.17 million from its numbers last year. To be fair, it won the hour in that 18-49 demo that advertisers get on their knees and pray extravagantly unctuous prayers to, and it's now on at 8 p.m. rather than 9, and viewing levels tend to be lower in that hour, but I wouldn't have expected it to be so roundly spanked by such a meat-and-potatoes show like "NCIS."

But if "House" is limping along, "Law & Order: SVU" is staggering, punchdrunk. One week last season, "L&O:SVU" was the only NBC show to have more than 10 million viewers; last night, it didn't even manage that (9.52m, down 2.6m from last season's debut); "Without a Trace" beat it handily, by almost 2 million viewers. And "Biggest Loser" was ehhh with 7.18m chubby chasers tuned in.

Am I forgetting anything? No, just The CW, where that "90210" show that everyone was salivating over a month ago fell below 3 million viewers.