‘The Mentalist’ season 6: Could season 7 air on another network?

Maybe this article is a little bit of a preemptive strike, but given the amount of conversation that we are seeing already on the future of “The Mentalist,” now seemed to be the perfect time to address what is a very important question: Could the show have a future even if it is not on CBS?

When the renewals were announced by the Eye last week, it was an eyebrow-raiser to many that the Simon Baker drama was not one of them. To that end, we perfectly get it: “The Mentalist” may be one of the lower-rated dramas on the schedule, but it does fare at times better than “The Good Wife” (renewed thanks to critical acclaim); also, it has the terrible challenge of airing Sunday nights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, which was doomed all fall by the NFL and is too late for some who want to start the work week off with plenty of rest. It’s hard for some to watch a later show and immediately fall asleep.

So first of all, don’t rule out an official renewal from CBS at some point soon. There is still a chance at a late renewal, though with the NFL going to Thursday night, executives may be cognizant that they don’t have a lot of room moving forward and casualties may need to be made on the schedule.

But even if the show is canceled, we still feel like it’s possible that a season 7 is in the works … and we’re pointing towards TNT. They already have the show in syndication, and they have revived a show in “Southland” that was far less successful in terms of viewers. Their sister station in TBS, meanwhile, has “Cougar Town” still on the air.

As for some other possibilities, we don’t really see the show working well on Netflix or another streaming service, since these are largely standalone episodes with few exceptions and don’t benefit from binge-watching like a “House of Cards” does. ABC already has “Castle,” and Fox is typically after a little bit of a younger demographic. We could see a surprise contender coming out from NBC, though: They have serious cop shows and mysteries, but nothing that is of this particular tone. Plus, they could put a new “Mentalist” season on Sunday nights after the end of the NFL season, and it would be less risk than trying to launch a new series there.

“The Mentalist” is a Warner Bros. TV show, and thanks to that, the studio is likely to fight hard for its future in the event that CBS cancels it. There will be options, and we’ll just have to watch and see what happens.

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Photo: CBS