Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images; Stephen Lovekin/Getty ImagesA leading man whose personal life makes more headlines than his professional life.
Two and a Half Men has been there, done that—twice, courtesy Ashton Kutcher and Charlie Sheen.
At least this time the show's getting bigger ratings out of the deal.
Monday's Two and a Half Men, the first to air since Demi Moore announced her plans to divorce the allegedly wayward Kutcher, looked no worse for the scandal. If anything, it looked healthier.
On a night featuring Dancing With the Stars' ballroom finals, the show scored a Monday-best 5.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic, and averaged an estimated 15.7 million viewers, up nearly 1 million gawkers from last week.
Compared to last year, when Sheen was still employed, if moonlighting in My Meltdown: Part 1--The Hotel Room and the Porn Star, the show was way up—nearly 20 percent in the demo, and nearly 10 percent in viewers.
Despite this, it's hard to tell if Two and a Half Men fans like Kutcher (and/or Kutcher's troubles) more than Sheen (and/or Sheen's troubles), or if they just like plain, old trouble.
After all, do you remember what happened to the sitcom's ratings after Sheen trashed that hotel room?
They went up.
Other key ratings performers:
• How I Met Your Mother (10.1 million estimated viewers): Last night's kicker didn't kick up the numbers, although, overall, the comedy's running bigger than last season. And chances are, more viewers may start tuning in to find out who's behind last night's big surprise.
• You Deserve It (10 million estimated viewers): Castle fans will be happy to know this new show's premiere, the one that had viewers fleeing ABC after DWTS (estimated 20 million viewers), didn't put a dent in their own show's numbers, which scored an estimated 11.9 million viewers, up from last week.
• American Music Awards (16th place, per Nielsen broadcast rankings): Jennifer Lopez's Fiat dance was not for naught. Viewership was up a touch from last year.
• Whitney (84th place): It's already getting beat by Up All Night (63rd place), and it hasn't even had to give the rival sitcom its choice time slot yet.
• Community (92nd place): Does an impending hiatus make the heart grow fonder? Looks like. This soon-to-be-benched comedy was up a touch from the previous week.
• Grimm (58th place): The good news is it got picked up for the rest of the season; the not-good news is it drew fewer 18-49-year-olds than either Whitney or Community.
• Ringer (113th place): CW's most-watched drama.
Here's a complete look at the TV week's top 10 most-watched broadcast shows:
- Sunday Night Football, 20.3 million viewers
- NCIS, 20 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Monday), 17.9 million viewers
- Sunday Night Football pregame, 15.2 million viewers
- NCIS: Los Angeles, 15.15 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), 15.1 million viewers
- The Big Bang Theory, 15.05 million viewers
- Two and a Half Men, 14.8 million viewers
- 60 Minutes, 14.5 million viewers
- Modern Family, 12.9 million viewers