Los Angeles: Dead or alive, Charlie Sheen ruled the TV airwaves on Monday, pulling in record audiences for his Comedy Central roast and more than 28 million Americans to his Two and A Half Men TV funeral.

Some 28.7 million watched CBS bury Sheen's wayward TV character Charlie Harper and introduce new star Ashton Kutcher in an all-time series high audience for the lucrative comedy, according to updated figures from research company Nielsen.

And after months of headlines following Sheen's bitter exit from the most-watched comedy on US TV, 6.4 million people watched his drug use and recent career meltdown draw laughter on Comedy Central's TV roast by fellow celebrities including Jackass stuntman Steve-0 and boxer Mike Tyson.

Comedy Central said Sheen's was its most-watched roast ever, while the audience for Two and A Half Men was more than double that of last year's season opener and bigger than any episode in the show's first eight seasons with Sheen in the starring role.

Opening with a bang

Monday's season premiere of Two and A Half Men crushed the opening of Dancing With the Stars on rival ABC despite a cel-ebrity cast that gave viewers their first glimpse of the ballroom contest's first transgender contestant, Chaz Bono, and TV legal analyst Nancy Grace both doing the cha cha.

Nielsen figures showed that 18.6 million people watched the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars — a 24 per cent drop from last year's opening show. Reviews for Kutcher's debut on Two and a Half Men, playing a heartbroken internet billionaire were kind and suggested that the series — a cash cow for both CBS and programme makers Warner Bros television — was far from dead.

"Kutcher's performance was good, nearly as poker-faced fine as Sheen's was ... Kutcher will probably prove just as skilled," wrote Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker. TV Guide's Matt Roush said that judging by first impressions the revamped "Men" will "will survive both Charlies just fine for at least a little while longer".

The Los Angeles Times called the premiere "a promising beginning" adding that "Kutcher brings a softness to a series that could be brittle and sour, misanthropic and misogynistic, and temperamentally middle-aged".

Sheen was the highest-paid actor on US television before being fired in March after an insulting tirade against the show's creators and producers that followed months of partying and attempts at rehab.

Settlement

Sheen and Warner Bros are said to be close to a settlement of the actor's $100 million (Dh367.32 million) lawsuit over his firing. Sheen has also made a number of contrite appearances in the past week, including delivering an awkward mea culpa at the Primetime Emmy Awards show on Sunday.

Los Angeles (Reuters) "Royal wedding" and "winning" (as in Charlie Sheen's catch-phrase) were the two most used phrases on television in 2011, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The rantings of the former Two and A Half Men actor beat "Arab Spring" and Simon Cowell's The X Factor singing show when it came to dominating TV screens in the official 2010-11 US TV season, the Global Language Monitor said.

"This is apparently shaping up to be the Year of Kate [Middleton]. She has come to dominate the small screen through her engagement, her fashion choices and most of all her royal wedding," said Paul JJ Payack, president of Global Language Monitor.

Middleton's April wedding to Britain's Prince William was watched by millions of people around the world and generated massive media attention.

But Sheen wasn't far behind. The comedy star embarked on a series of bizarre interviews, videos and even a nationwide tour after being fired in March from what was the highest-paid acting job on US television.

"Winning" was one of his favourite phrases, followed closely by "tiger blood" and bragging about his various "goddesses". A more subdued Sheen admitted last week he was out of control and making jokes that he never believed in. In an appearance at the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, an apparently sincere Sheen wished his revamped TV show well.

Rounding out the 2011 top TV words were Oprah, whose talk show ended after 25 years; "Fukushima", the epicentre of the Japanese quake, tsunami and nuclear power catastrophe; "9/11", "Obama-vision", "Chicago-style politics" and "Zombies".

The Texas-based Global Language Monitor uses a maths formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print, electronic and social media.

Last year's top Teleword was "Spillcam" after the live feed of the ruptured deep sea oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.