Seemingly oblivious to the damage he’s doing to his own career, Charlie Sheen has reacted to the suspension of “Two and a Half Men” for the rest of this season by continuing to rant in public and attack the show’s creator.
After Warner Bros. Television and CBS Entertainment announced that the hit show would not resume production this season, due to Sheen’s erratic behavior, the actor fired off a letter to TMZ which resumed his anti-Jewish tirade against show creator Chuck Lorre, again emphasizing that his real name is Haim Levine, calling him a “contaminated little maggot” and wishing him “nothing but pain in his silly travels.” Sheen claimed that he had somehow defeated Lorre and urged his fans from the show to stand with him to “right this unconscionable wrong.”
A short time later Sheen was on the attack again, sending text messages to ABC’s “Good Morning America” declaring that he plans to show up for work despite the cancellation of the remaining shows this season. He also declared that he is in talks with HBO about doing his own show, to be called “Sheen’s Corner.” Oh, and he called Lorre a “clown” and a “loser.”
No doubt there is going to be a battle between Sheen and the producers over whether he gets paid for the remainder of this season. For CBS and its affiliates, there will be a financial impact from not having any more new episodes of “Two and a Half Men” to air on Mondays. At Barclay’s Capital, analyst Anthony DiClemente tried to assess the fallout.
“While the financial impact to CBS will be difficult to quantify in the near term, we would expect the Monday night line-up to suffer a bit in the ratings, as hits Mike and Molly and Hawaii Five-O will no longer benefit from Men’s strong lead in. Even so, CBS claimed an impressive 12 of the top 25 shows in primetime, led by Two and a Half Men (4.2 rating/ 12 share) in 4th, Mike and Molly (3.8 rating/ 10 share) in 8th, and The Big Bang Theory along with How I Met Your Mother tied in 9th with a 3.7 rating and 11 share,” DiClemente said Friday (2/25) in a note to clients.
Sheen’s public notoriety appears to have increased viewer interest in the syndicated reruns of “Two and a Half Men,” which have scored stronger-than-ever ratings. But with no new episodes being produced, the pipeline for syndicated episodes will eventually run dry as well.
“We support Warner Brothers and Chuck Lorre’s decision, and we hope everything is resolved so it can be business as usual when the Fall season begins,” said a statement sent to RBR-TVBR by Sean Compton, president of programming for Tribune Broadcasting. Tribune has rights to air the syndicated “Two and a Half Men” on its stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and 16 other markets.
RBR-TVBR observation: Why is Charlie Sheen making such a big deal out of someone in Hollywood not using their real name? The name on his own birth certificate is Carlos Irwin Estevez. But then, why are we trying to find logic in anything that Sheen says these days?
