Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Ten months after Two and a Half Men looked destined for cancellation, TV’s top-rated sitcom is the biggest ratings gainer of the new season.
Charlie Sheen’s firing on March 7 could easily have been the end of the series. Warner Bros TV, which produces the show, was ominously silent about its future.
Things couldn’t be more different now. Kelly Kahl, CBS’s senior executive vice president of primetime said: “When we were sitting around in May talking about what we would be happy with, we all agreed: If we were anywhere close to where we were a year ago, we’d be thrilled.”
The show has far exceeded such expectations – and also those of Sheen. Soon after Ashton Kutcher was named as his replacement, Sheen predicted in May that the show would average a mere 2.0 rating among 18-to-49-year-olds. “Enjoy the show, America,” he told TMZ. “Enjoy seeing a 2.0 in the demo every Monday, WB.”
Try three times that. The show is averaging a 6.4 rating, far better than the 4.6 it earned last year with Sheen in the lead. It has averaged 17.8 million total viewers.
