Ashton Kutcher Wanted to Be Paid As Much as Charlie Sheen, Who Earns a Huge Per-Episode Salary on Two and a Half Men

Chuck Lorre Two and a half men is renowned for being one of the best sitcoms ever to air. However, most of the credit goes to none other than Charlie Sheen, who brought the show to life.

Playing the talented, happy-go-lucky drunk who was forced to take in his brother Alan Harper and son Jake Harper, Sheen was arguably the show’s lone bright spot for nine brilliant seasons. He was eventually replaced after an epic falling out with Lorre and company, and replaced in season nine by Ashton Kutcher.

In an interview with Howard Stern, Kutcher revealed that he was among the many fans who were shocked when he found out that the network wanted to replace Sheen with him. Although he accepted the role because of the lucrative offer, multiple financial considerations ultimately led him to be a part of Two and a half men.

Ashton Kutcher was stunned to receive a lucrative offer for Two and a half men

When Ashton Kutcher joined the cast of Two and a half men, He was a genuine movie star who thought that doing television would set his career back. Yet at the same time, when Charlie Sheen left a year earlier, he was the highest-paid actor on television, earning a staggering $1.8 million a year.

This led Ashton Kutcher to sum up the decision in simple terms. During a discussion with his agent, he said he would take the job if he was offered the same kind of money: (Howard Stern Show)

I went to dinner with my agent and said, “I can’t believe this guy. How much money does he make?” I said casually, “If they offered me that kind of money for this job, I’d take it!”

Of course, that wasn’t the case, but it was still a huge sum, as the actor reportedly earned a whopping $755,000 per episode, which turned out to be enough for him to join the team:

I found myself faced with a decision that I didn’t really see coming… It was a really, really, really good payday. We were always wondering, “What’s Charlie going to say? How is this going to play out publicly?” There were a lot of people who were big fans of the show who didn’t like me on the show. I get it, because it’s not the same show.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Charlie Sheen publicly took aim at Ashton Kutcher and admitted in 2017 that he was “stupid” in doing so. (By News.com) Yet rather than it being Ashton Kutcher’s fault, it was the studio’s desperation to keep the show running for another two years that led to him being cast in Two and a half men.

Ashton Kutcher has become a member of Two and a half men while the creators wanted to maximize their profits

It turns out that Charlie Sheen left at an opportune time for the creators. The show had been a resounding success for 9 seasons, and it needed to air for another two years in order to sell it to major networks. Two and a half men could last two more seasons, and could be sold to major television networks for reruns, making it a sustainable source of money.

This is what initially led the creators to approach Ashton Kutcher:

Here’s what happened: I was shocked to accept the role in Two and a Half Men. I wasn’t interested, I was making movies. I was sitting with my old agent, who worked for the William Morris Endeavor talent agency.

They had a share of the back end and there was a huge incentive to keep the show running because they expected a huge profit from syndication. If they could get the show on the air for two more years, they could leverage that.

So Kutcher had to take on one of the most difficult roles of his career. Not only did he have to replace a global star who had defined the entire sitcom up until that point, but he also had to do a good job of keeping the show going for a few more seasons.

Two and a half men can be watched on Amazon Prime.