43
Life after Charlie Sheen: What are the options for CBS?
AP
Photo
Charlie Sheen waves as he arrives at the Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen, Colo., for a hearing in his domestic abuse case. Appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday, Nov. 22, 2010, adult-film actress Capri Anderson, the woman found in Charlie Sheen's New York hotel room last month, says the actor hurled racial slurs, threw a lamp at her and grabbed her by the throat. She says she's suing Sheen for battery and false imprisonment, and plans to file a criminal report with New York police.
By Joe Flint
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES
The decision by Warner Bros. to fire Charlie Sheen, star of the hit CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men,” may alleviate one headache for the studio and network.
But it creates several new ones and raises knotty financial questions that will need to be resolved quickly because tens of millions of dollars are on the line for the parties.
The first decision facing CBS and Warner Bros. along with the program’s executive producer, Chuck Lorre, is whether to keep “Two and a Half Men” in production without the star who has become inextricably identified with its success. CBS is only two months away from unveiling its new fall lineup, and advertisers will be keen to know whether one of the hottest shows on TV will be back and if so, the actor who will replace Sheen.
“Two and a Half Men,” the network’s No. 1 comedy, is a linchpin of CBS’ schedule. Advertisers pay north of $200,000 for a 30-second commercial, according to industry estimates, to reach viewers of one of the network’s youngest-skewing shows.
CBS said in a statement that the “financial impact of the shutdown is not material to the network” and that “any ratings declines will be more than offset by the reduced programming costs for episodes lost this season.” At $4 million per episode, “Two and a Half Men” is CBS’ most costly comedy.
However, such short-term savings don’t take into account the value of “Two and a Half Men” as a vehicle to promote the network and the beneficial effect for shows that follow it Monday night. CBS’ new comedy “Mike and Molly” is doing well largely because it comes right after “Two and a Half Men.”
CBS has been airing reruns of “Two and a Half Men” for almost a month and plans to keep doing so at least for several more weeks. A network spokesman said that later CBS might try different shows in the “Two and a Half Men” slot.
The idea of “Two and a Half Men” continuing without Sheen, who plays a rogue bachelor living with his uptight brother Alan (played by Jon Cryer) and his nephew Jake (Angus T. Jones), may strike fans as preposterous. After all, the character lives for drinking and womanizing and seems to be drawn from Sheen’s offstage life.
Given how hard it is to develop successful shows, CBS, Warner Bros. and Lorre may bet that even a weaker “Two and a Half Men” would still perform better than most programs. “The odds are stacked against you that something will be a hit, so you try to keep these things on the air,” Poer said.
Of course, if history has shown anything, it’s that actors can be replaced. Sheen himself knows this above all: He took over Michael J. Fox’s role on the ABC hit “Spin City” when Fox was forced to quit because of Parkinson’s disease.