TWO A HALF MEN'S Ratings Still Strong

Some half-baked TV critics with no background in statistics analysis are running features today claiming that season 9 of TWO AND A HALF MEN is in ratings trouble. That's nonsense. Although the season 9 episodes of the series have lost a significant amount of it's peak audience since it's huge 28.74 million viewer peak debut, the series is still running above the yearly average for any of it's previous eight seasons so far. Last year's season 8 average was 14.2 million average viewers for example. Last week's episode still garnered a strong 16.2 million viewers, which is very strong.

Many TV critics aren't happy with Ashton Kutcher's character on the show, and they're looking for any evidence that he's causing the series to fail. But, the ratings so far don't paint that story at all. The ratings wouldn't be running better than any of the previous eight seasons if Ashton Kutcher was as much of a failure as some critics suggest. Even all of the bad publicity surrounding his latest sex scandals doesn't appear to have dampened ratings all that much. True, each week the ratings have come down in season 9. But' it's still doing 2 million viewers better than last year. In all likelihood, this season probably eventually settles down to a little below last season at some point, but that's still healthy enough for a nine season long series. CBS still has a big hit here, where there's no reason for anyone to panic yet.

Season 9 of TWO AND A HALF MEN is far from the best season ever, but a number of guest stars such as Jenny McCarthy are keeping this season both fresh and funny. This season is still good enough to be considered good enough. Any series that's nine years old might have some viewer fatigue. Nothing lasts forever. And probably neither CBS, nor the producers of TWO AND A HALF MEN are very happy at the scandals of Ashton Kutcher on one hand, but on the other hand the scandals might actually help the ratings a little by adding an additional curiosity to the show.

As long as viewers continue to watch in decent numbers, TWO AND A HALF MEN will continue.