In 2011, CBS announced that Ashton Kutcher would be replacing Charlie Sheen as the s lead star of Two And A Half Men, following a series of scandals involving the disgraced 55-year-old that had also seen him make some not-so-nice remarks about the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre.
Sheen became one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood thanks to his role on the award-winning show, but after a string of controversial behavior, an alleged drug addiction, run-ins with the police, and other bad conduct, he was fired.
The amount of money Sheen was making per episode on the sitcom was unheard of at the time, so it’s understandable why he was furious when CBS got rid of him in an attempt to do damage control after all the negative press that had surrounded the show because of the controversial actor.
What Was Charlie Sheen’s Salary On ‘TAAHM’?
Sheen was the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, earning an incredible $1.8 million per episode on TAAHM in the show’s final season.
Making that sort of money on a TV series was uncommon at the time, but considering that CBS was charging millions of dollars for advertising spots in-between commercials, the network could afford to pay him that enormous sum.
Sheen, who had been feuding with Lorre prior to his departure from the show, came forward in 2017 and admitted that he didn’t hadn’t mended his relationship with the 58-year-old, who took offense to one of Sheen’s rants in February 2011, where he had made several anti-semitic comments about his boss.
That appeared to have been where Lorre was ready to draw the line. After all the scandals that had erupted in Sheen’s life within those two years, the television director and producer was not going to allow an actor he was paying millions of dollars to discredit or disrespect him in that manner.
But in 2017, during an interview with the Kyle and Jackie O Show, the Wall Street star made it perfectly clear that things still hadn’t been patched up between him and Lorre as he continued throwing insults the TV mogul’s way.
“Keep in mind, I made four billion for that studio and got fired. If I'd made five they'd have killed me!” he ranted.
“The most ridiculous impostor this side of La Brea is Chuck Lorre, and I hope you're listening. He's the most miserable f***ing douchebag, the most talentless f***ing sack of s**t of f***ing stupid this side of La Brea... Dude, when you're done touching it, suck it!”
Many believed that Sheen didn’t think he could ever be fired from the show he helped turn into the phenomenon that it was, but Lorre showed him otherwise.
Losing out on $1.8 million would be hard for any actor to accept — especially when the work in Hollywood starts running low and one reminisces on the wonderful times when money was flowing in non-stop.
Ashton Kutcher’s Salary
Meanwhile, when Ashton Kutcher joined the show in its ninth season in 2011, his role as Walden Schmidt was earning him a cool $700,000 per episode, and while that may not have been anywhere near the numbers that Sheen was grossing for his salary, it’s still a very generous sum.
Most actors on successful TV shows are earning the same amount Kutcher made on TAAHM, which was already an established sitcom at the time that he joined the series, so to come in as the new guy and already earn that kind of money would have made any actor happy.
His $700,000 per episode contract still ranked Kutcher as the highest-paid actor in a sitcom, but of course, that was well before the lead cast of The Big Bang Theory had their contracts renegotiated and earned a cool $1 million an episode.
The father of two later revealed in a candid chat on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast that he was initially expected to play a completely different role than the one fans saw him play on TV.
But we’re going to assume that given the large paycheck and getting to work on a huge sitcom was enough for Kutcher to stay on board and play the part anyway.
“I got the script and was like, 'Well, that's not what we talked about.' But he had an idea for this character I thought was interesting, and he was like 'Are you ready?' and I was like 'What do you mean?' He's like well 'This is going to be a big story and a big thing.'
“I was like, 'What's going to happen?' I mean worst-case scenario, the guy is gonna shit-talk me and then what? So, I was like okay, and I just decided to do it and had a really good time.”