The absence of Charlie Sheen didn’t stop viewers from tuning in to Two and a Half Men season 8 premiere.
With Sheen’s roast simultaneously running on Comedy Central, 27.7 million viewers chose instead to watch Ashton Kutcher join the venerable comedy and purchase the house once owned by Sheen’s Charlie Harper character. Of those viewers, 10.3 million fell into the advertising friendly 18-49 demographic. Both ratings marks were an all-time high for the series.
Two and a Half Men may have buried Sheen’s roast both literally and figuratively, but that doesn’t mean viewers who chose the former didn’t watch the latter as well. Comedy Central ran back-to-back-to-back airings of the Sheen roast so it was nearly impossible to miss throughout the late evening.
Kutcher’s Walden Schmidt Internet billionaire fit right into the Two and a Half Men universe. Distraught and suicidal at the thought of his high school flame leaving him, he manages to evolve from a sobbing wuss into a ladies man in a matter of minutes. Even though a lot has changed for Jon Cryer’s Alan Harper character, Walden’s way with the ladies means much will stay the same.
The real test for Two and a Half Men comes next week now that the initial curiosity about Kutcher’s inclusion and Charlie Harper’s fate is in the rear-view mirror. Ratings will no doubt fall, but by how much is the big question. The answer won’t matter to Sheen who proclaimed at the conclusion of his roast, “I’ve already won.”
