The season opener of "Two and a Half Men" with Ashton Kutcher drew an astronomical 27.7 million viewers -- dwarfing the "Dancing With the Stars" audience by a margin of 9 million viewers!
Don't get us wrong ... 18.6 million people is nothing to sneeze at, but in the grand scheme, "DTWS" was down 18% from last season's premiere.
By sharp contrast, "Men" nearly doubled its audience from the season opener last year, when Charlie Sheen was still on board.
So far ... ratings are not available for the Charlie Sheen roast, but the size of the audience won't be in the same universe as "Men."
"Two and a Half Men's" true test will come next week, to see if viewers will stay after seeing the novelty of Kutcher in the lead role. See a clip of his debut performance, below:
