What would you say if we told you millions fewer people than usual watched last night's Two and a Half Men?
"About time?" "How sad?" "No way!"
Has the bottom really dropped out of Charlie Sheen's prime-time approval ratings?
No.
On a night of CBS comedy reruns, Monday's Two and a Half Men was a rerun. So while the show was indeed down about 4 million from its season average, the plunge doesn't count.
What does count is that whether in rerun or in rehab, Sheen's still got it.
That slightly used Two and a Half Men, airing opposite all-new competition, was Monday's most-watched show, rating an audience of more than 11 million (on par with last week's rerun).
The show did best among guys, who presumably are trying to figure how Sheen gets away with it.
Other TV ratings winners and losers:
• The Bachelor: Last night's episode hit a season high (9.5 million), and did best among women, who presumably are trying to figure out how Brad Womack gets away with it.
• Football: Why was everybody complaining about how lousy the Pro Bowl was? Probably because everybody watched it. The Super Bowl tide-over scored its biggest audience (13.4 million) since 1997.
• Betty White: On Sunday night, she goosed the Screen Actors Guild Awards (a combined 5 million on TBS and TNT), and the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie The Lost Valentine (14.6 million).
• The Office: Maybe Ricky Gervais is the new Betty White? In any case, the cameo-graced comedy was the week's highest-rated scripted show in the 18-49 demo (and fourth place overall).
• Parks and Recreation: Cracked the top 10 in the weekly demo rankings. (A lot of top shows were on vacation, but still…)
• President Barack Obama: Ratings for his State of the Union address were down 11 percent from last year, after falling 18 percent the year before that. Time for a consult with Betty White—or Ricky Gervais?
• Teen Mom 2: Hit a new franchise high (4 million).
• Chuck: All NBC bragged about this morning was how many (old) people watched Harry's Law last night. Yikes.