Are You Ready for Some Mandy Patinkin?

Burned by Janet Jackson, CBS will call upon another musically inclined performer to help see it through next year's Super Bowl night: Mandy Patinkin.

Patinkin's Criminal Minds will air in the vaunted post-game time slot immediately following Super Bowl XLI, the network has announced.

The big game and the special Criminal Minds are set to air Feb. 4.

Last February, ABC used the Super Bowl stage to promote Grey's Anatomy. Shows that have gotten the pigskin push over the years range from the famous (Friends) to the Trivial Pursuit fodder (MacGruder and Loud).

Opposite ABC's more-hyped Lost on Wednesdays, Criminal Minds has emerged as a Top 10 hit in its sophomore season. Last week, it was watched by a series-high 17.9 million, placing fourth in the latest Nielsen Media Research rankings.

Patinkin stars on the series as FBI profiler Jason Gideon.

Like Jackson, who performed at halftime during CBS' broadcast of Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, Patinkin has released several albums, and even won a Tony for the Broadway musical Evita. Unlike Jackson, he's never suffered a wardrobe malfunction worth $550,000 in indecency fines.

Halftime performers for Super Bowl XLI have not been announced. CBS presumably was still checking into which singers wear the most clothes. With the most buttons.

Elsewhere in ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday:

• Fox's House (sixth place, 17.3 million) was back in big business.
• CBS' NCIS (third place, 18 million) hit a season-high in total viewers, but failed to win over more 18-to-49-year-olds in its time slot than ABC's holiday offering of A Charlie Brown Christmas (22nd place, 13 million). 
• In its new Thursday home, Men in Trees (28th place, 11.3 million) squandered more than half of its Grey's Anatomy lead-in (first place, 24 million), en route to being declared ABC's latest hit show. Fortunately for Anne Heche, time-slot predecessor Six Degrees encouraged even more tune-outs among the Seattle Grace faithful.
• The "fall finale" gimmick worked like a charm for CBS' Jericho (31st place, 10.2 million) and Fox's Prison Break (37th place, 9.6 million).
• The "season finale" gimmick did so well for ABC's The Bachelor: Rome (34th place, 9.9 million) a relative crowd was on hand to see Prince Lorenzo Borghese wriggle out of proposing to his future ex-girlfriend.
• The dream of a Must-See TV revival on Thursday nights proved so intoxicating to NBC that a 72nd-place finish by 30 Rock (6 million) encouraged the giddy network to renew the comedy for the rest of the season. 
• ABC's America's Funniest Home Videos (45th place, 8.9 million) continued to entertain people who haven't figured out how to use YouTube.
• CBS' 3 Lbs (52nd place, 8 million) has gone the way of Smith. Both series lasted three episodes each.   
• The sixth-season premiere of NBC's Scrubs (54th place, 7.7 million) wasn't anything special--except that the comedy was up way over its fifth-season average.
• ABC had no special adjectives for the panned premiere of Big Day (57th place, 7.6 million), or the continued bleak performance of Day Break (87th place, 4.7 million).
• Fox had absolutely nothing to say about The O.C. (97th place, 3.7 million).
• The CW bragged about season highs for America's Next Top Model (74th place, 5.7 million) and Gilmore Girls (84th place, 4.9 million), and a series high for Veronica Mars (101st place, 3.4 million).
• Fox had absolutely nothing to say about Trading Spouses (95th place, 3.7 million), the least-watched show on the four big networks.
• In daytime, ABC's The View rode the Rosie O'Donnell-Kelly Ripa dust-up all the way to a best-ever third-place finish for the week ended Nov. 26.
• Relegated to cable, made-for-TV movies drew relatively large audiences for TNT and the Hallmark Channel with the premieres of The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (6.2 million) and The Christmas Card (4.3 million), respectively.
• If you air a Golden Girls at 1 a.m. on a Thursday, as is Lifetime's way, 615,000 people will be really grateful.

In the battle of the broadcast networks, CBS notched its usual win in total viewers, while NBC scored a rare win in the 18-to-49 demo.

CBS's CSIs helped it average 11.8 million viewers; NBC's Heroes (12th place, 15.6 million) helped it top ABC for superiority among youngish adults.

NBC also edged ABC in total viewers, 10.4 million to 10.1 million. Fox (8.2 million) ran fourth in both categories.

The CW averaged a season-best 3.8 million.

Last week marked the final days of the November sweep. As expected, CBS finished in first in viewers; ABC finished first in the demo.

Here's a look at the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 24 million viewers
2. Fox NFL Sunday Postgame, Fox, 21.9 million viewers
3. NCIS, CBS, 18 million viewers
4. Criminal Minds, CBS, 17.9 million viewers
5. Deal or No Deal (Monday), NBC, 17.7 million viewers
6. House, Fox, 17.3 million viewers
7. CSI: Miami, CBS, 17.1 million viewers
8. The OT, Fox, 16.5 million viewers
9. CSI: NY, CBS, 16.4 million viewers
10. CSI, CBS, 16.1 million viewers