CBS has formally renewed Two and a Half Men for a tenth season with stars Ashton Kutcher, Angus T. Jones and Jon Cryer all ready to perform having recently landed new deals with the network.
Two and a Half Men has been a strong performer for CBS, even in the wake of Charlie Sheen’s bizarre and highly publicized exit from the series at the end of Season 8. Ratings had slipped a couple million viewers per episode between Seasons 7 and 8 until Sheen began his crazy streak toward the end of Season 8. Ratings saw an uptick by a few million viewers when that fiasco began and carried through the Season 8 finale.
When Ashton Kutcher came on board for Season 9 after Sheen’s Charlie character was killed off-screen, ratings jumped on average around 13 percent to 15 million per episode. Those numbers are a little misleading when zeroing in on each episode individually over the course of the season. The Season 9 premiere introducing Kutcher brought in a whipping 28.74 million viewers. The most recent episode, the second-to-last of the season, mustered only 11.43 million, or nearly a 60 percent drop.
Though over 11 million viewers is a low number for CBS and Two and a Half Men, it’s still a strong number when weighed against the competition in prime time. There is no surprise in CBS’ eagerness to sign Ashton Kutcher, Angus T. Jones and Jon Cryer for another season to keep their flagship comedy on the air.
