{alltv} Sheen's recovery is linked to CBS' financial well-being

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On Thursday, Charlie Sheen thanked his colleagues on Two and A Half Men, as well as CBS chief executive Les Moonves and Warner Bros. studio TV head Bruce Rosenblum for their support.

And it's no wonder. CBS and Warner Bros. Television, which produces Two and A Half Men, are hoping Sheen has a speedy recovery: The series, TV's top-rated comedy, is a cash cow. Warner is expected to make $1 billion or more from syndicating the show to local stations and FX, and the $4 million an episode paid by CBS covers the entire production cost, including Sheen's nearly $2 million-a-week salary.

In its eighth season, the show is averaging 14.6 million viewers, down just 1% from last year, and even Men repeats draw more viewers than original episodes of every other comedy on TV except CBS' The Big Bang Theoryand Mike & Molly — both also produced by Men's Chuck Lorre— and ABC's Modern Family.

Last year, a similar stint in rehab led Two and A Half Men to shut down for two weeks, costing CBS two of four original episodes planned for the February ratings sweeps period. So this latest trip is a bit of déjà vu: The only two completed but unaired episodes will air tonight and next Monday. Comedies such as Men are filmed in a single night before a studio audience and can be readied for airing about two weeks later. That differs from dramas, which require more time to shoot and edit.

To fill gaps starting in late February and extending at least into March, CBS has ordered two extra episodes of Rules of Engagement, which it could plug into the 9 p.m. ET/PT hour, and has held talks about producing an extra episode of How I Met Your Mother. But it can also rely on reruns of Men and Big Bang, which moved to Thursdays this season.

Because those Two and A Half Men repeats perform well, "any ratings declines will be more than offset by the reduced programming costs for episodes lost this season," the network said in a statement last week. But CBS clearly wants the show back as quickly as possible: Ratings for surrounding programs will suffer as well if Men repeats are prolonged.

Charlie Sheen's representative, Stan Rosenfield, says Sheen hopes to return to work by the end of February: "That is the date being targeted and hopefully will happen."