CBS Wants Charlie Sheen Back on 'Two and a Half Men' ... If He Makes Nice

by Joel Keller, posted Mar 21st 2011 3:51PM
tvsquad.com

If the prospect of 'Two and a Half Men' without Charlie Sheen seemed like a weird idea to you, then be assured that the folks at CBS were likely tying their stomachs in knots thinking about the same thing.

How do we know? Because apparently CBS wants Sheen to come back to 'Men,' with network honcho Les Moonves personally spearheading the negotiations to get him back.

"Moonves wants to get the show back on the air. He's all for it," a network insider told Radar Online. "He says certain people need to forget anything and everything Charlie's done recently and just move on with the business at hand."

Basically, he wants his underlings at CBS and the folks at Warner Bros., the studio that produces the show and fired Sheen earlier this month, to repair the fractured relationship between Sheen and producer Chuck Lorre. Jeff Rossen of NBC, whom Sheen called a "rock star" after their infamous interview, confirmed the negotiations from Sheen's side.

With buckets of money on the line -- not the least of which is the $100 million lawsuit Sheen filed against WB and Lorre -- it's pretty easy to try to let bygones be bygones in Hollywood. While a changed 'Men' might limp through a ninth and maybe even a 10th season, a Sheen-less show would not be nearly as attractive to advertisers and local stations bidding on the syndication rights.

There are still plenty of hoops that will need to be jumped through in order for this deal to happen, but the powers that be may have seen Sheen sell out his stage show -- including a night at the 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall in New York -- and realized that even a loopy Sheen still has drawing power.

Stay tuned...