Charlie Sheen’s on-air “Anger Management” a success; earns 90-episode back-order from FX

Get ready for another long-running multi-camera sex-laden sitcom from Charlie Sheen.

His FX series, Anger Management, has secured its 90-episode back-order after hitting its contractual ratings targets for its first 10-episode season. FX made the announcement Wednesday.

We don’t know what pre-determined ratings target the show needed to hit to trigger this automatic renewal, which all but guarantees that other channels will buy the sitcom into further syndication years down the road. What we do know is that Anger Management averaged 4.53 million viewers in its first season.

Production on the next 90 episodes will begin Sept. 24, 2012, with a new season bowing in January 2013.

“We set a very high ratings bar that included some additional hurdles for Anger Management to earn its back-90 order and the series met and exceed those metrics,” said Chuck Saftler, FX Networks executive vice president. “Bruce Helford has created a sitcom that works extremely well in our pre-10 p.m. programming lineup. Charlie Sheen and the entire cast did an amazing job in the first 10 episodes, which were produced in a very tight window. I have no doubt that the producers and cast will be able to pull off the Herculean task of producing 90 episodes over the next two years.”

And this renewal also means you’ll see more of Charlie’s father, Martin Sheen — who will, not-so coincidentally, play Charlie’s on-air father.

In case you haven’t been watching the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction alternate reality that is Anger Management, the TV adaptation of the film (which starred Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson) has Charlie Sheen as a therapist who not only works with patients on their own issues, but also sees a therapist himself. Selma Blair plays that therapist/friend. Shawnee Smith plays Sheen’s wife. The cast also includes Daniela Bobadilla, Michael Arden, Noureen DeWulf, Derek Richardson and Barry Corbin as series regulars, and Michael Boatman as a guest star.

Bruce Helford is the showrunner and executive producer. Anger Management is produced by Lionsgate Television and distributed by Debmar-Mercury.

So. With Two and A Half Men already in syndication — and ads promoting the older CBS episodes on posters and billboards with Sheen as “the original” — are you ready to see twice as much Charlie Sheen clogging up your syndicated TV screens by 2014?

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

View all posts by Sean L. McCarthy →