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CBS cancels remaining Two & a Half Men season

Updated: CBS cancels the remaining season of Charlie Sheen's sitcom. Sheen call Chuck Lorre a "little maggot" and says the show is done "for good."

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It’s war in sitcom land.

Never turn on your producer. Not in public anyway  -especially when they have other sitcoms on the go with the network.

CBS and Warner Bros. have cancelled the remaining season of Two and a Half Men, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The move follow anti-semitic comments from Charlie Sheen about the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre on a radio program Thursday.

A statement from CBS and Warner Bros read:

“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.”

During Sheen’s lengthy tirade on the Alex Jones Show, he repeatedly refered to Lorre as “Chaim Levine,” and said he spent “close to the last decade effortlessly and magically” converting Lorre’s “tin can into pure gold.”

Sheen noted that he was told that if he went on “attack” execs would cancel the show.

Later, Sheen told TMZ he “violently hated” Lorre and that he “owned” him.

The drama follows Sheen undergoing rehabilitation and staff being stood down for a month. An earlier report that Sheen had left for a holiday to the Bahamas, despite rehearsals being scheduled for next Tuesday.

This will remain a story to watch. There will likely be major repercussions from the latest incident.

In Australia the sitcom has been shedding viewers, down to 545,000 last night -fourth in its timeslot.

Nine has 5 more new episodes to air.

UPDATE: After the announcement of the series shutdown, Sheen fired off an angry letter to TMZ that read:

“What does this say about Haim Levine after he tried to use his words to judge and attempt to degrade me. I gracefully ignored this folly for 177 shows … I fire back once and this contaminated little maggot can’t handle my power and can’t handle the truth. I wish him nothing but pain in his silly travels especially if they wind up in my octagon. Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words — imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists. I urge all my beautiful and loyal fans who embraced this show for almost a decade to walk with me side-by-side as we march up the steps of justice to right this unconscionable wrong. Remember these are my people … not yours…we will continue on together… Charlie Sheen”

UPDATE 26/2: Sheen calls Fox Sports Radio with Pat O’Brien from the Bahamas … where he claimed during the entire 8-year run on Men he felt like “an unwanted relative being given cold coffee at 9pm every night.”

And now that show execs have shut down production on Men for the rest of the season, Sheen believes the show is also done “for good” … saying, “Can you imagine going back into the sludge pit with those knuckleheads at this point? Can you imagine? It would go bad quickly.”

Source: Hollywood Reporter, TMZ

86 Responses

  1. CBS knew exactly of the risks they had in casting Charlie Sheen, a quick question time with someone he knew as a child – ie. his family, would’ve told them of the risks, he has had highly publicized drug/alcohol/abuse issues since the 80s, it’s not like this was sudden.

    I can’t be bothered searching through the 70odd comments but @ whoever suggested replacing Sheen – not going to happen, ever. Shows do not succeed afterward, the Only thing I’ve ever seen praised for being a “dream” was the finale of Newhart, and that was only a single episode. CBS would rather green screen Charlie into scenes or have a ventriloquist stick his arm up Charlie’s corpse’s spine rather than replace him.

    Neither CBS nor Warner will not let go of Two and a Half Men without a fight, it earns them both in excess of millions I’d imagine.

  2. If it were any other celebrity, the simple fact of them appearing on The Alex Jones Show would have been career suicide. Jones is a barking mad conspiracy theorist who spouts all kinds of paranoid One-World-Government-Illuminati-New-World-Order-9/11-Was-an-Inside-Job lunacy. Sheen himself shares at least some of those views, but the bigger story here is his public meltdown. Anyone else would have been simply ridiculed – deservedly so, in my opinion – for sharing Jones’ wacko worldview.

  8. I hope Temptation/Sale of the Century does make a comeback or The Price is Right complete with New Sets and Hosts.
    This would have been Sale’s 30th Year on Air had they not axed it in early 2009 for 2.5 men

  9. the most surprising thing in this article is the fact that channel 9 still have 5 new episodes unaired…quick nine, air them next week before he opens his big mouth again

  13. Chuck Lorre also has The Big Bang Theory and Mike & Molly to carry on with plus he created Dharma & Greg, Cybil & was EP on Rosanne. In the world of TV comedy i’m pretty sure he will out live Sheen.

  14. hopliy everyone involed with the prodution of 2.5 men (who arent Sheen)
    have jobs if 2.5 men gets the can(maybe a spin off without sheen)
    sheen you’ll be luckly if you get a job at kfc

  16. Charlie Sheen is barking mad. He needs to go to a mental hospital not a drug rehabilitation clinic, he’s way beyond simply drug addicted now.

    I hope he gets the help he needs before he ends up dead. But I’m not hopeful given Hollywood’s history of encouraging rather than helping wealthy stars with drug and mental problems.

  18. I think using Chaim was Charlie’s way of having an anti-Semitic dig at Levine. Chaim is a very obvious Hebrew name, whereas Charles isn’t, so it was Charlie’s way of baiting Lorre for being Jewish.

  20. Chaim was not the name Chuck Lorre was born with – it was Charles Levine. Perhaps it was Sheen’s overuse of the name Chaim Levine which was interpreted as anti–semetic. Chaim is not Hebrew for Charles.

  21. Maybe because Chaim Levine is not his birth name, it’s Charles Levine.

    Carlos Estevez who are you to bag out someone with a different birth name anyway?

  22. Well, if Charlie is insisting on calling Chuck Lorre by his birth name (Chaim Levine), Chuck should call Charlie by his birth name, Carlos Estevez.

    Wow, this is about as unedifying a public flameout as it is possible to have. No way in hell will Charlie be returning to 2.5 Men after that. I just cannot imagine Lorre having him back as the attack on him was way over-the-top and completely unacceptable. That was an uncalled for, vicious public evisceration and as Lorre is Sheen’s boss, he should fire his ungrateful a**. I imagine crisis meetings are being held at the Nine Network as we speak, as 2.5 Men is one of the two pillars propping the network up, the other being the rapidly failing Underbelly.

  23. If it gets axed right now, i think it’s fair to say it’s a fitting way for this show to go out. It was a terrible show, and terribly unfunny, and deserves a terribly undignified end.

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