CBS officially confirmed that "Two and a Half Men" will be returning for Season 10. While the show is still a decent performer in the ratings, CBS might be making a mistake by bringing it back for one more season and moving it to Thursday nights. In doing so, they are keeping a show that is past its prime on the air. They might also end up hurting their programming future down the road. Seeing that it still draws an audience, there was a little chance that the network was going to dump the show. However, here are some reasons why "Two and a Half Men" shouldn't have been saved.
It's been on too long.
For a live action sitcom, 10 seasons is an eternity. Sitcoms inevitably jump the shark, and there is no avoiding that. Many feel like this show jumped the shark when Jake started getting older. Others thought it jumped the shark when Charlie Sheen was replaced with Ashton Kutcher. The point is that like any sitcom, this one has started to feel stale. The addition of Kutcher's character might have opened up some new storylines, but few of them were overly exciting. That is unlikely to change next season.
A new show loses a spot.
The network moved this show to Thursdays, and it will air after "The Big Bang Theory." That doesn't make sense. Seeing that "The Big Bang Theory" is at the peak of its ratings, CBS would have been better served by putting a new show on after it. A new show would have benefited by the spillover audience. Instead, the network is wasting that golden opportunity by putting "Two and a Half Men" in that spot instead. CBS clearly wants to stake a claim on Thursday nights, but moving a show that likely has one more year left isn't the right way to build a foundation.
Jake is too old.
As with any sitcom that features children, there are always issues when they get older. Many sitcoms choose to keep children as background characters to avoid this issue, but that doesn't apply to this one. As Jake, Angus Jones is a major player on this show. Unfortunately, the title of the show no longer applies since he is a fully grown man. I'm sure there are some fresher stories that the writers can explore involving him, but he is no longer the character he was when the show began. That rarely works out well for sitcoms.
The move doesn't bode well.
After its long tenure on Monday nights, why did CBS decide to move this show to Thursdays? Aside from trying to establish power on that night, it doesn't make any sense. By moving it out of the Monday night slot, it could mean that CBS no longer believes that it can carry a night. If the network has already lost faith in the show, why should viewers keep it? Switching the night and time of a show this late in the game isn't a good thing for a show entering a 10th season.
