Last month, the Season 9 premiere of Two And A Half Men received its biggest ratings to date with almost 29m viewers.
But figures released this week show the rebooted CBS sitcom is almost half the show it started out to be – with just 17.71m switching on for this Monday’s episode.
Apparently the recent publicity Kutcher has garnered for allegedly cheating on wife Demi Moore with partygirl Sara Leal has not encouraged the viewing public.
Kutcher’s character, billionaire Walden Schmidt, was brought in to replace predecessor Charlie Sheen, who was sacked from the franchise after a bitter public fallout with creator Chuck Lorre.
A source close to Kutcher is reported as telling Radar that the 33-year-old actor is concerned about the slump.
The insider said: ‘Ashton is concerned that the ratings are dropping each week.’
The source added: ‘However, to be fair, the season premiere of Two and a Half Men last year when Charlie Sheen was still on the show, had around 16 million people tuning in.’
Two And A Half Men still remains the most popular comedy on American television despite the ratings fall.
Industry experts predicted viewing figures would stabilise following the much-hyped premiere.
This week the show had competition from the NFL match on Monday on NBC, which saw 22.05m tuning in and topped the charts.
CBS’s crime drama NCIS came in second place with 19.35m while Two And A Half Men took third place in the October 3-9 figures.
|