Detroit 1-8-7: Charlie Sheen Pre-empts Next Episode

Charlie Sheen and CBS’ Two and a Half Men have played havoc with the other network’s schedules for years. The sitcom is one of the top-rated shows on television and sometimes reruns outperform the competition. Now, Sheen is helping ABC for a change.

ABC News has landed an exclusive interview with the troubled actor and will air it on Tuesday night on a special edition of 20/20. The special edition will no doubt get huge ratings.

To make room for the interview, ABC has once again pre-empted Detroit 1-8-7, the network’s lowest-rated scripted series. From a ratings standpoint, just about anything they can put in that timeslot will perform as well or better than Detroit 1-8-7. Last week’s special edition of Primetime garnered a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 4.14 million viewers. That’s certainly not a great performance but it is 14% better than the previous episode of Detroit 1-8-7.

As frustrating as this may be to fans of the crime drama, ABC isn’t likely to stop pre-empting it. On the positive side, Detroit 1-8-7 remains on next week’s schedule, for now at least. At this point, the show is all but cancelled and the network is essentially burning off the remaining episodes. There are three episodes left in this season and there’s no way that its coming back for season two.

What do you think? Will ABC get around to airing the three remaining episodes of Detroit 1-8-7?