How Long Till Two and a Half Men Falls Behind Charlie Sheen?

At the rate new-look (and still top-rated) Ashton Kutcher comedy is going, the TV ratings answer is: maybe next week

According to Ashton Kutcher, Two and a Half Men has "found its groove," and the new-look comedy is "starting to gel."

But its ratings are another story.

And it's a story that, of course, involves Charlie Sheen.

Since its eye-popping season opener, Two and a Half Men has lost about half its audience, from 28.7 million down to 14.9 million last night, per Nielsen estimates. Among adults 18-49, the decline has been slightly steeper, from a 10.7 demo premiere-week rating to a 5.2.

While the descent has slowed, the comedy is still shedding, on average, about 15 percent of its audience with each passing episode.

At the rate it's going, the show could drop below where the Sheen-era Men was last fall as soon as next week. (The Nov. 1, 2010, Men, for those keeping tabs at home, scored 13.6 million viewers and a 4.7 demo rating.)

Kutcher's still happy—in a video posted this morning, he thanked fans for "another huge week in the ratings"—and he's not wrong to be happy.

Kutcher's Men is still the season's most-watched, top-rated comedy…albeit with Sheen's Men lurking at every turn. 

Other notable ratings results:

• NCIS (1st place, per latest Nielsen weekly broadcast rankings): Its first win of the season, and probably not it's last.

• Last Man Standing (10th place):  The No. 1 premiere; the No. 1 new show. Welcome back, Tim Allen.

• Person of Interest (15th place): The No. 1 new drama, just ahead of Unforgettable (16th place).

• 2 Broke Girls (22nd place): An interesting counterpoint to Two and a Half Men. After its own giant-sized opener, which aired after Men's, this comedy has come back down to Earth, too, but, unlike Kutcher's crew, it's managed to hold onto the majority of its premiere-night crowd.     

• Revenge (40th place): Up three spots from last week. 

• Terra Nova (47th place): After a down week, righted itself last night, climbing to an estimated 2.7 in the 18-49 demo. 

• Up All Night (59th place): For the first time since premiere week, the Christina Applegate-Will Arnett show was NBC's No. 1 new comedy, supplanting Whitney (71st place). 

• Harry's Law (41st place):  Weaker in the 18-49 demo than the canceled Charlie's Angels.

• A Gifted Man (42nd place): Ditto.

• Prime Suspect (64th place): Tritto.

• Fringe (85th place): Quatro, or whatever the equivalent of ditto is for the fourth straggler in a sequence.

• The Walking Dead: The No. 1 cable series, with 7.3 million viewers, and the No. 2 show overall, behind Monday Night Football.

• Sons of Anarchy: With 3.6 million viewers, the No. 2 cable drama ahead of the likes of the premiering Psych (3 million) and American Horror Story (2.5 million). 

Here's a complete look at the TV week's Top 10 most-watched broadcast shows:

1. NCIS, 19 million viewers
2. Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), 16.9 million viewers
3. Dancing With the Stars (Monday), 16.8 million viewers
4. Sunday Night Football, 16.6 million viewers
5. Two and a Half Men, 16.2 million viewers
6. NCIS: Los Angeles, 15.4 million viewers
7. Sunday Night Football Pre-Kick, 14.4 million viewers
8. Modern Family, 13.6 million viewers
9. The Big Bang Theory, 13.58 million viewers
10. Last Man Standing, 13.2 million viewers