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
oh people, give up the continual ‘sale of the century’ and ‘hey hey’ dribble… move on, it’s 2011 – and memo to nine, it is 2011 ok?
Hey is Friends in 16:9 now – woah I gotta check that out (well the early seasons at least)
Loved, now Sick of Big Bang Theory. Long since said goodbye to 2 1/2 Men due to endless flogging by 9.
Good luck trying to find a sitcom that works in the medium-long term 9 – how many did Ten try before they gave up and found a completely fresh alternative that has now lasted 18 months
the problem with the show has always been Sheen and his arrogance … the show may have been a bigger success if he were never in it …
Nine’s programming strategy
If a show doesn’t rate after just 1-2 weeks pull it
Or repeat the hell out of a show till it does rate and then gradually repeat it to death like 2.5 men.
I like Big Bang however I’m really depressed at this news. That’s a terrible decision.
Don’t Nine understand that repeating it so often will turn off fans. When new episodes show up the numbers will plumet.
On a side note, speaking of repeating things, Quantum of Solice was on last weekend on Seven. Tonight (Sunday) its on Again on 7mate. Hm… Nine and Seven you’ve failed, epically, you’re both idiots.
Nine are so fixated on cheap comedy from the US for their 7pm time slot. They wouldn’t revive Sale of the century/Temptation again. (Although you never know) Channel Nine needs another game show (Without Eddie) maybe not for every night, like in the Nine Network’s golden day.
All this is going to do is kill off Big Bang theory. Stupid stupid idea. If they only ran it on Nine at 7pm and a new episode at 7:30pm either Monday or Wednesday it would be a different story but the fact there is at least 14 episodes a week on 2 channels is ridiculous. Cull the ones on GO! But Nine won’t do that because its GO!’s strongest show. So what do you do. I don’t like watching repeats over and over and this is what will happen.
Nine should just test the waters with Hot Seat at 7pm. It can’t hurt for a week at least can it? They do need a new solution to 7pm though. A game show is the cheapest option. To the person who said game shows are expensive are kidding themselves. They are one of the cheapest productions to put up locally.
oh no!! no more million repeats of 2&a half bogans!!! what are they going to do lets see put big bang theory on repeats with both on 9 and go! that is another way of killing a show!!! so the monkey the horse and the donkey are running 9 are they???
It looks like Nine is in a panic.
Jeopardy-W channel has the rights to that show.
Seriously, is it any wonder that the ratings have dropped for the repeat episodes of Twio and a Half Men at 7pm.
Channel 9 have flogged the show to death by repeating the same episodes over and over.
I still don’t get the hype about The Big Bang Theory – it certainly won’t fix Channel Nine’s rating problems at 7pm.
My Panasonic blu-ray recorder’s EPG now lists TBBT at 7pm.
Nine does have a new game show-Million Dollar Drop coming-seen promos for it (but probably won’t run in a 30 minute timeslot).
@Daniel – there are not as many viewers on GO! or GEM as the main channel so you can just about double the numbers by just being on Nine. I think a show like Friends is more likely to be more viewers than Seinfeld given it is known to more as a ch9 show but the fact both are now in 16×9 could open them up to a new generation of viewers at 7pm… I’m just hoping one day they finally get release on DVD or BluRay in the wide screen format.
Well hopefully the Big Bang Theory at 7pm is just a short term measure for the network to organise something more long term, perhaps by Easter. If it isn’t, then that is just lazy programming. Say what you want about Home and Away and 7pm project but at least its an attempt by the other networks to offer 1st run programs in primetime. I’m also leaning in favour of a game show to run at 7. I think Sale of the Century could do well.
I can’t believe some people are calling for Friends to be put on at 7pm. They obviously have a very short memory as it was barely scraping in at 500K when it was airing in that timeslot on Ten not too long ago. A gameshow, any gameshow is what is needed for 7pm weeknights, either Temptation or a totally different concept.
I used to enjoy even repeats of this show, but I’ve seen all the episodes too many times now from the endless repeats on Go and sometimes Nine. So while it’s certainly a better show, the problem is not solved.
FYI – given the ratings in the US it’s more than likely Mike and Molly will be picked up if it hasn’t already, in fact I think I read some where that CBS is confiding making it the new lead on Monday’s and demoting 2.5 Men in the Fall line up, if it’s in the line up.
@chris ramirez are you kidding, seinfield and friends wouldn’t pull past 400k each, they hardly crack past 200k on Go and Gem.
not a good sign for big bang, recent season has definitely been lacking the fun and humour that the first 3 had; its becoming overly sexual with its humour and reminds me too much of why i refused to watch 2.5 men. I just hope Lorre doesn’t fill Big Bang with unused 2.5 men storylines… not that there was anything left after so many years.
@Geoff, I agree. they can’t just pull a quiz program out of thin air. They are also expensive to produce, so I can’t see Nine going down that route unless the sitcom repeats fail dismally. If they do decide to slot a quiz program eventually into the 7pm slot, may I suggest doing Jeopardy. It’s a really entertaining quiz show, it is on at 7pm on the W Channel and I often watch it. Fab concept for a quiz show and highly addictive. It has been running in the US for decades.
Maybe Eddie could do a new quiz show @ 7PM, ticks all the boxes from Nine and the public wanting Temptation.
Nine actually have 8 new episodes up their sleeve because they skipped over episodes 6 to 8 this season