Charlie Sheen is back at work at “Two and a Half Men,” and his producer said Saturday that the audience at the actor’s first show taping since his arrest on felony and other charges was “incredibly supportive.”

Sheen taped an episode of the top-rated CBS comedy on Friday. He was arrested Christmas Day in Aspen, Colo., on suspicion of domestic violence and other charges. Sheen’s wife, Brooke, told police he put a knife to her throat, an accusation the actor denies. Attorneys say the couple wants to reconcile.

Sheen showed up at work Monday and rehearsals went well, said Chuck Lorre, the show’s creator and executive producer. He said the incident wasn’t ignored, but wouldn’t say how it came up backstage. Lorre said Sheen seems to be doing as well as he can under the circumstances.

“We did a live show in front of a studio audience and it was a big success for us,” Lorre said. “We just came back to work.”
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The failed Jay Leno experiment was great for business — at CBS.

CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler said Saturday her network took in more advertising revenue for its 10 p.m. dramas because NBC decided to put Leno’s comedy show on at that hour five nights a week. NBC is considering moving Leno back to late-night TV because its affiliates are upset that the show’s low prime-time ratings are hurting late local news programs.

“Ten o’clock is a great business for us,” Tassler said. “The unfortunate thing is that our creative community was to some degree somewhat bruised by this … A lot of people were put out of work. A lot of people really saw this as having a negative effect on our business.”
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Jeff Probst on Russell Hantz: 'I think Russell was the victim of a jury of bitter people.' (CBS)

Clearly not everyone thought Natalie White should’ve won Survivor. Count among the doubters one Jeff Probst.

Probst, the host of the CBS reality juggernaut, wrote on Entertainment Weekly‘s PopWatch blog that he believed Russell Hantz should’ve received the $1 million first prize on Sunday night instead of Natalie.

Probst wrote: “Oftentimes on Survivor, the vote does come down to a choice where a determining factor is ‘how nice someone is’ but that’s usually when all other criteria being considered is equal. That doesn’t hold up this season. This season was so lopsided in terms of one person (Russell) completely dominating the game that to not give him the money and the title is a bit silly.”
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Super fun: Map pinpoints parties, more

The new CBS reality series “Undercover Boss” will make its debut in one of the most coveted time slots on television — right after the Super Bowl.

The series follows corporate executives who slip anonymously into low-rung jobs in their companies. The first episode features the head of Waste Management as he cleans portable toilets and sifts through waste at a landfill.

The show will air on Sundays, replacing the drama “Three Rivers.”

The Super Bowl traditionally gets the biggest TV audience of the year, and the show following it benefits from people who keep their TV on.

The Super Bowl, which takes place Feb. 7, will air on CBS.

Current stars of CBS' 'As The World Turns' include Jon Hensley, Michael Park, Maura West and Colleen Zenk Pinter. (CBS)

Pop Shop: Did these four dumb moves kill ‘ATWT’?

CBS canceled “As the World Turns” on Tuesday, putting the company that coined the phrase “soap operas” out of the business of making daytime dramas for the first time in 76 years.

“As the World Turns” has been on the air since 1956 and televised its 13,661st episode Tuesday. Its last episode will be next September, the network said.

It’s the second daytime drama CBS has canceled in a year, after “Guiding Light.” Both shows were produced by a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble, the company for which the term “soap operas” was created because it used the shows to hawk products like Ivory soap and Duz laundry detergent.
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Adam Lambert talks with 'The Early Show' host Harry Smith about his appearance at the American Music Awards. (AP)

Adam Lambert admits he got carried away with his sexually charged American Music Awards performance, but he’s offering no apology.

The glam rocker from “American Idol” said on “The Early Show” that his performance would not have caused as much controversy if he weren’t openly gay. He also said there were other “adult” moments on the show that caused no outrage.

“I admit I did get carried away, but I don’t see anything wrong with it,” he said Wednesday. “I do see how people got offended and that was not my intention. My intention was to interpret the lyrics of my song and have a good time with it.”

Lambert kissed a male keyboard player, dragged a female dancer around by the ankles and had a dancer simulate oral sex on him while performing “For Your Entertainment,” a song with a sexual edge. ABC received many complaints about the performance and that network’s morning show, “Good Morning America,” canceled Lambert’s scheduled appearance on Wednesday because it said it couldn’t trust what he would do.
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Fans of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS know the host’s running joke about the show’s lack of anything close to a big budget.

But Tuesday, faced with a power outage thanks to high winds in L.A., producers decided to go ahead with the show and power it by flashlight.

Apparently, Ferguson gamely interviewed Alicia Silverstone with the lights out, then they came back on for a segment with Salman Rushdie before they shut down again for his closing segment.

And here’s Craig, making the best of a bad situation:

Fans of the CBS cop procedural Cold Case might’ve been wondering what had happened to this week’s episode after Sunday’s game between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets went into overtime and ran long.

As it turns out, according to a report from Huntsville, Ala., CBS affiliate WHNT, the network decided to bump the show after the game started to stretch into overtime.

The game went over by an hour and 14 minutes, which pushed the start of 60 Minutes past 8 p.m.

There’s no news when the episode, entitled “Soul” and set in Philadelphia, will be aired.

READERS, FEEL FREE TO SHARE YOUR ‘GUIDING LIGHT’ MEMORIES BELOW.

Today, after 72 years and more than 15,700 weekdays on television and radio, it’s lights out for Guiding Light.

It’s a run, an institution, that never has been matched. And likely never will again.

You don’t have to be a fan of the show, or of the soap opera genre it pioneered, to feel a sense of gravity at the demise of Guiding Light.

The cast of 'Guiding Light'

“It’s been reflecting American life back at America since before World War II,” said Guiding Light executive producer Ellen Wheeler.

“We are the history of so many people,” added veteran leading lady Tina Sloan. “They watched it for so long.”

But today (3 to 4 p.m., WPEC-Channel 12 ), they will watch its final hour.
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By Tony Doris

The avuncular anchorman spent less than a half-hour on camera every evening.

But when Walter Cronkite said “Here now, the news” and launched into his broadcast, viewers saw the result of a day he’d spent reporting, conducting interviews and weighing dispatches from around the world, said Jupiter resident Peter Lund, a retired president and CEO of CBS Inc. and friend of the late legend.

“Walter considered himself first and foremost a reporter,” Lund said. Unlike many cable anchors and talking heads today, who put in three-hour shifts as news readers and personalities while a producer orchestrates content, Cronkite was managing editor in title and fact, said Lund, 68.

He spent the days meeting with editors, evaluating stories, Lund said. “He would take full responsibility for everything that went on the air.”

Cronkite died Friday at age 92 from complications of dementia, his family said.

Under Cronkite’s reign from 1962 to 1981, CBS rose to No. 1 in network news ratings, and the anchor worked hard not to relinquish that. At the same time, he never lowered standards to achieve that, Lund said.

“Walter would not have accepted doing something less than a first-rate journalistic job in order to be No. 1 under any circumstances. He would not compromise his principles.”

The integrity of his broadcasts won him viewers but also served as a point of pride for CBS employees, said Lund, an executive at CBS for more than 20 years, including president and CEO from 1995 to 1997.

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