Time: 2 hours
Wall Street Journal
By SAM SCHECHNER and LAUREN A.E. SCHUKER
By halting production on the eighth season of "Two and a Half Men," CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. are turning away from a proven hit with both viewers and advertisers.
Charlie Sheen's antics led to the cancellation of the season.
Outbursts from star Charlie Sheen led the media companies to cut off production of TV's most-watched comedy, potentially ending a program that helped lead a revival in TV sitcoms.
New episodes of "Men" on CBS average 14.7 million viewers. Reruns on CBS rake in nearly three quarters of the audience, and it is also popular in nightly syndication on local TV stations.
It's now unclear whether new episodes will ever be made, however, according to people familiar with the matter.
CBS' and Warner Bros.' decision Thursday came less than six hours after Mr. Sheen went on an erratic rant in a radio interview against topics as varied as Alcoholics Anonymous, Thomas Jefferson, and "Men" co-creator Chuck Lorre.
"I've spent, I think, I don't know, the last decade effortlessly and magically converting your tin cans into gold," he said, in an apparent reference to Mr. Lorre's scripts.
CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves learned of the radio rant while at a party the company was hosting for investors in midtown Manhattan, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr. Moonves spoke by telephone with Bruce Rosenblum, president of Warner Bros. Television Group, the person said. Together, the two men decided to pull the plug.
"Based on the totality of Charlie Sheen's statements, conduct and condition, CBS and Warner Bros. Television have decided to discontinue production of 'Two and a Half Men' for the remainder of the season," the companies said.
Mr. Sheen has said in various public statements that he is sober and is ready to work. Mr. Sheen's base salary is roughly $1.2 million per episode, according to people familiar with the matter.
Representatives for Mr. Sheen and Mr. Lorre didn't return requests for comment.
For CBS, the shutdown will likely result in lower viewing levels and therefore lower advertising revenue. The show brought in roughly $162 million in ad revenue for the network in 2009, according to Kantar Media estimates.
But the network said late Friday that "any ratings declines will be more than offset by the reduced programming costs for the time period." CBS pays Warner Bros. approximately $4 million per episode, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Jon Friedman discusses the business implications of CBS' decision to shut down production of its hit show 'Two and a Half Men' for the rest of the season in the wake of star Charlie Sheen's rant against the show's producer.
After ad sales, CBS turns a "small profit" on that, another person said.
Longer term, CBS could suffer from losing its Monday anchor, a show that helped launch Mr. Lorre's "The Big Bang Theory" and "Mike and Molly."
Earlier
Warner Bros, which produces the show, will miss out on eight episodes for a show it sells not only to CBS, but also to local television stations and to cable network FX.
One person familiar with the company said those episodes would have represented $10 million to $12 million in net profit for the studio, after production costs, star salaries and "profit participants" including Mr. Sheen.
If "Men" does not return at all, Warner Bros. could miss out on those sales for as long as the show would have remained on the air. Warner Bros. and CBS in 2009 inked a new deal to extend the show through next season, ending in 2012.
"Men" has been on hiatus since January, after executives at both Warner Bros. and CBS pressed Mr. Sheen to enter rehab.
In its eight seasons on the air "Men" has soldiered gamely through a tough time for TV comedies. They ruled the airwaves in the 1980s and 1990s, but for much of the last decade new comedies lost steam.
But now TV networks are pushing a revival, in part because Mr. Lorre showed he could replicate his success.
—Nat Worden contributed to this article
It is amazing to me how one person can have such an affect on the media and so many components. Two and a Half Men is an incredibly successful show, and without it, the advertising will go down significantly in the time slot until they can build up another show with an equal amount of viewership.
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