Sitcom lost its Sheen: Nine pulls Two & a Half Men.
Updated: Nine pulls repeats of Two and a Half Men from its 7pm timeslot -but only in Brisbane.
- Published by David Knox
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The Nine Network has finally pulled repeats of Two and a Half Men from its 7pm timeslot -but it is sticking by Chuck Lorre.
UPDATED: 2.5 Men is out in the Brisbane market only with TBBT in place. Nine must be testing the waters.
From tomorrow night it will air repeats of The Big Bang Theory, one of three Lorre comedies that air on the network.
The move sees the network finally respond to the headline-grabbing behaviour of the star after enjoying top ratings with the show for more than three years.
Last week the show slipped as low as 545,000 viewers on Thursday, fourth in its timeslot. Recent ratings suggest the audience is no longer seeing the joke on the sitcom and Sheen’s bitter tirades make it increasingly difficult to separate life from art.
In his latest bitter tirade, Sheen says he would be unable to work on the show again under the current producers.
Even Nine’s own News and Current Affairs programmes have been documenting his trainwreck life.
However, Nine still has five new episodes of the sitcom, several of which are currently still scheduled at 7:30pm Mondays.
The Big Bang Theory, which airs on Nine along with Lorre’s Mike and Molly, is now at risk of saturating Nine’s schedule. New and repeat episodes are in place for Tuesday and Wednesday as well as six episodes this week on GO!
But Nine may yet adjust its schedule to reflect the Sheen dramas.
While Sheen’s conduct is hardly the domain of the Nine Network, it isn’t ideal when it is pushing its “Home of Comedy” campaign for 2011. At least there was better news in announcing Hamish and Andy on Friday. They’re not likely to be offending anybody.
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- Tagged with Hamish and Andy, Mike and Molly, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men
62 Responses
Why doesn’t Channel 9 put Friends on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and Seinfeld on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7pm.
Come On!!!!! Channel 9 Listen To Me!!! Do Something Smart for Once, Please Listen To Me!!! and you will Go Good!!!
Hot Seat at 7pm would be an option. Doesn’t solve the 5.30 problem, but 9 news struggles even with the Eddie show’s lead in which often beats Deal on 7. Others are right in pointing out the short sightedness in Big Bang scheduling.
I like Craig’s idea of 5 diff shows in the 7pm slot – a promotional nightmare, but at least fresh – oh silly me, we’re talking about commercial programmers!
What’s with people saying that they want The Price Is Right, Temptation, Sale of The Century and such at 7pm. Do you all really think that Channel 9 can just start air those shows 5 nights a week with No warning.
This time last week Nine saw Two & a Half Men as a long-term 7pm program.
has this been confirmed? I still have 2.5 Men at 7pm on my EPG (both foxtel and set-top box)
Yep, putting The Big Bang Theory on every night at 7pm will of course saturate the show for audiences.
But this is Channel Nine we’re talking about.
Remember the flogging it gave Ramsey’s Kitchen nightmares after it was a surprise hit, then replicated the strategy for Two and a Half Men. Both shows suffered and eventually headed for the scrapheap of graveyard tele or digital channel.
How long before this happens to TBBT ? It is still a young show and Nine can’t rely on Mike and Molly to be it’s next back up at the moment.
i have said it before and i will say it again bring back temptation preferably with Ed and Livinia
The Big Bang Theory has been played way to much on Nine, GO! and Comedy Channel. Time to get some new content at Nine.
Good riddance to bad rubbish! Why don’t Ch 9 actually invest in a locally made show like – oh I don’t know – a revamped Sale of the Century?
Not a bad idea considering it ran for over 20 years and was a mega-hit for the network – just a thought.
9 wouldn’t want to try a Temptation type game show at 7pm again.
I know it will never happen but maybe Nine should have 5 different shows at 7pm?
Or what about Friends from the start in 16×9 like they have been showing on GEM. They could even promote it as ‘For the first time… in widescreen on Nine.”
But I agree a game show is looking pretty good for them right about now.
Why not 1hr of news and ACA at 7pm? I don’t think they’ll bring back Temptation – too expensive
Did they really brand themselves the “Home of Comedy” based on three shows? I don’t watch Nine at all, but surely they had more in their bag than that.
Channel seven are loving this. They’ve bagged Charlie Sheen and the show twice on sunrise this morning (and I only watched sunrise for about an hour).
14 eps a week of big bang is way beyond overkill, they will be through the whole series before Easter non ratings.
While I do think the 7:00 decision is a good idea they need to take the rest of the repeats out of schedule.
Finally!!! Now let’s watch how 9 ruin Big Bang. I wish they would come up with a good alternative for that slot, surely they could take a risk and develope something more interesting then old repeats of an american comedy. Channel nine is the home of bland I reckon.
The “Home of Comedy” rebranding of the Nine Network will surely go down as one of the major flops in Aussie TV history. Gotta say, I’m actually surprised that they have pulled 2.5 Men, as it is such a central plank of their programming schedule.
Theres only 80 episodes (including the current partly aired series). If Nine/GO play 14 per week it will kill off all interest in the show, like 2&1/2 Men where if you have seen 2 out of every 3 episodes that come on, you stop watching. Would love to see classic Seinfield, haven’t seen this for years.
Misprint in the article. Don’t you mean “….sticking by Chaim Levine”? 😉
I commented the other day that 9 were likely to air Big Bang at 7pm. I much prefer that over Two And A Half Men but where I live we have different programming at 7pm anyway & I am a massive fan of Home And Away & would never watch anything else to 7pm.
Also there is only about 80 episodes of Big Bang which will only last 16 weeks & people will get bored & the episodes have already been repeated on Go like 8 times already.
+ living in a city where 6 is Sydney news 6:30 is local news and 7 is aca in anoring . Could 9 change that
As great as it sound I don’t think there is enough big bang ep 7pm 5 times a week. So why not Monday wednesday Friday big bang , the other days why not friends( if you have the rights to it)
Temptation is looking pretty good again isn’t it nine?
And now they are airing The Big Bang Theory eight times a week on the main network. 5 eps at 7pm, two on Tuesdays and one on Wednesdays. What will they do in a few months? Repeat all three and a half seasons again?
I have a real feeling that CBS could leave Two and a Half Men off it’s Fall schedule come the May upfronts (when they normally announce the coming seasons lineup).
What renewal did the show already get 1 or 2 years?
If Nine are still a fan of Chuck Lorre sitcoms and need a 7pm show that is proven a hit, then maybe they need to get Dharma and Greg to fill the slot and stop the risk of Big Bang Theory overload?
and so it begins….