Anger Management: Charlie Sheen's New Sitcom Breaks Record
Charlie Sheen's "Anger Management" broke ratings records when it debuted June 28 on FX. The first episode of Sheen's new show became the most-watched scripted comedy premiere in cable TV history, raking in 5.47 million viewers, followed by 5.74 million viewers on its second episode.
The new sitcom in which Sheen plays a therapist, marks his comeback to TV since he left CBS' "Two and a Half Men" in 2011.
The TV show is loosely based on the 2003 film "Anger Management," starring Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson and Marisa Tomei. Sheen stars as ex-baseball pro Charlie with some anger issues turned anger management therapist. Co-stars include his real life father Martin Sheen as his father, Shawnee Smith as his ex-wife and Selma Blair as his therapist.
TV critics had mixed reviews about Sheen's premiere episode:
"Anger is pretty tame stuff. As overseen by show runner Bruce Helford (The Drew Carey Show), Anger is a conventionally constructed show, and Sheen delivers his lines with snap; it's the writing that's dully vague," wrote Entertainment Weekly.
"But it seems like this show is part of Sheen's therapy back into celebrity normalcy. The flare-up got us watching, but business as usual is not going to keep us paying attention. Sometimes the jokes almost hover closer to "edgy," but they're quickly snapped back into familiar and safe territory with this weird need to moralize within the story," wrote Ryan Sandoval for TV.com.
On next week's episode "Charlie and the Slumpbuster" the new "evolved" Charlie has to deal with a ghost from his old carousing, baseball-playing days when an unattractive woman he slept with just to break a batting slump shows up as a new patient in group therapy, according to FX.
"Anger Management" airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EST
