The ratings are in, and it looks like Chuck Lorre is the guy who's "winning" after all.
'Two and a Half Men' ratings huge! Ashton Kutcher debut delivers series high
by James Hibberd, Entertainment Weekly
Two and a Half Men premiere ratings are in. And they’re jaw dropping. Stunningly huge.
The ninth season premiere Monday night starring Ashton Kutcher taking over for Charlie Sheen delivered 27.7 million viewers — that’s in the ballpark of an American Idol premiere.
Even more impressive: The sitcom scored a 10.3 rating among adults 18-49. That’s easily an all-time high for the show, and up 110 percent over last fall’s eighth season debut with Sheen. Everybody expected the sitcom’s first new episode back would perform strong, but not like this.
CBS’ entire comedy lineup was strong, with the night opening with back-to-back episodes of How I Met Your Mother (11.3 million, 4.7 and 12.2 million, 5.1, respectively), that were much higher than last fall’s premiere. Following Men, new comedy 2 Broke Girls did a giant 19.1 million viewers and a 7.0 rating — down, as one would expect, from its giant lead-in, but still likely to dwarf any other new scripted series debut this fall. The only CBS show that didn’t seem to much benefit from the Men surge was Hawaii Five-0 (12 million, 3.4) at 10 p.m., which was down 13 percent from last fall, yet still won the 10 p.m. hour.
Over on NBC, another much buzzed about premiere had a very different fate: The Playboy Club bombed out at 10 p.m., drawing only 5 million viewers and a 1.6 rating. Its two-hour lead-in, the first fall edition of The Sing Off (5.2 million, 1.9), performed weakly.
CBS also crushed the premiere of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars (18.6 million, 3.9). Though ABC held up better than any other CBS rival, the two-hour premiere was down a sharp 24 percent from last fall’s edition. Good news at 10 p.m., though: The return of Castle (13.6 million, 3.3) was up 22 percent from last year.
Much more to come, including ratings for other Monday night premieres, refresh for latest
