Actually, it kind of makes sense: Kutcher is one of the few stars whose social-media savvy outshines post-breakdown Charlie (Ashton has double the number of Twitter followers), and he could bring in that younger demographic that seems to be the only group resistant to the hit show’s gravitational pull. Plus, now there’s a chance Demi Moore will cameo!

All things considered, Kutcher isn’t the worst choice of replacements. He’s no great thespian, but then again, neither was Charlie Sheen. He’s affable, with a mediocre sense of comedic timing and great name recognition, which is apparently worth the “big paycheck” that sources say was negotiated for the “Butterfly Effect” actor.

In most cases, Ashton being attached to a project makes me groan. With “Two and a Half Men,” though, I’m almost like, “It could be worse?” After all, if he’s terrible I could just continue to not watch the program. What would be really great, though, is if the show pulled an “Other Darrin” switch and had Ashton just take over as Charlie Harper, with none of the cast acknowledging that their costar is no longer being played by a giant pile of cocaine and sadness.

That might be the one scenario where you could convince me that this was a program worth watching.

I’m wondering if Rob Lowe is still on this list, as he’d probably make for the best contestant to fill Sheen’s shoes. Not in the same role, of course, but Rob could easily turn on the charm and carefree charisma that Sheen brought to his “Charlie” character. And what’s more, the actors grew up together. (Hello, “Stories I Only Tell My Friends!“)

But what’s most intriguing about the Chuck Lorre saga is that it’s made a star out of the producer. Tell me (with the exception of Lorne Michaels) the name of any other comedic show-runner in television history. It’s kind of hard, right? But with the drama going on between Sheen’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. and Chuck caught right in the middle of it like a red-headed stepchild, he’s become famous in his own right — if only for the speculation of what he’s going to do next with the show.  That’s right: not Sheen, but Chuck Lorre.

This is where “Two and a Half Men” could still succeed. It doesn’t need the big-name talent on the roster right away, but the show needs to prove that it still has a sense of direction post-Sheen. Whether or not Lorre can pull this off will be the real test of his Hollywood chops and potentially his legacy– if not, he is doomed to be remembered as nothing more than the producer who became famous for a public row with his star.

After those first few weeks, the “CBS Evening News” settled into third place in the ratings and is well behind leader Brian Williams at NBC’s “Nightly News” and second-place Diane Sawyer at ABC’s “World News.”

No departure date has been set for Couric. Her CBS News contract expires on June 4.

“We’re having ongoing discussions with Katie Couric,” said CBS News spokeswoman Sonya McNair on Sunday. “We have no announcements to make at this time. Until we do, we will continue to decline comment on rumor or speculation.”

Said Matthew Hiltzik, Couric’s spokesman: “Ditto.”

Still, discussions are already under way about who will replace Couric on the evening newscast. Russ Mitchell, Scott Pelley and Harry Smith are among the internal CBS candidates, and new CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager is also expected to look outside the company.

Couric, who was on vacation last week, was reluctant to talk about her future when she appeared on fellow CBS host David Letterman’s show on March 22. “Once you take that anchor chair, that’s what you do,” Letterman told her.

“Really?” Couric answered.

“Look at Walter Cronkite, look at Tom Brokaw, look at Brian Williams, look at Peter Jennings, look at all these people,” Letterman said. “They get in it, they saddle up and they ride into the sunset.”

Couric smiled widely and said she loved doing the evening news and was proud of her work, but made no future commitments. Despite the ratings problems, the “CBS Evening News” won the Edward R. Murrow Award as best newscast in 2008 and 2009. Couric’s interview with then-Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008 was a memorable moment in the campaign after Palin couldn’t or wouldn’t answer Couric’s question about books or magazines she regularly read.

Even with those high points, broadcast news economics had changed markedly since she signed on with CBS and her reported $15 million a year salary became increasingly hard to justify for a third-place telecast. Fager, the “60 Minutes” executive producer, was installed as CBS News chairman two months ago and new executives frequently like to put their own stamp on newscasts.

Rome Hartman, Couric’s first executive producer at the “CBS Evening News,” said that while Couric’s tenure clearly didn’t work out as well as CBS hoped, “I don’t think it’s right to think of it as, or call it, a failure.”

For the first time in many years, a network tried to increase the number of viewers watching the evening news instead of trying to steal a bigger slice out of an ever-shrinking pie, said Hartman, editor of “BBC World News America.”

“There are people who love Katie and those who don’t love her and that was a factor,” he said. “But it was the overall dynamics. There was a rock that we couldn’t move and I don’t think it would have mattered who we would have put in there.”

Although Couric will leave the evening news, she might not leave CBS. The CBS Corp. is a powerful force in the syndication business as owners of “Dr. Phil” and “Judge Judy,” and the upcoming departure in May of Oprah Winfrey will leave a huge void in the talk show marketplace. Through CBS-owned stations, the company could give a big head start to a Couric show. Due to the sales calendar, such a show would not likely begin until fall 2012.

A syndication deal with CBS is seen as the only possibility that Couric would continue as evening news anchor on a temporary basis past June, if she were to agree to stay during an extended search for her successor.

Other chief contenders for Couric’s services are NBC and Telepictures. NBC is her old home, but is not considered a big player in the talk show business. It tried and failed to launch a show for Jane Pauley, one of Couric’s predecessors on “Today.” Telepictures is bigger in the marketplace, producing “Ellen” and a new show with Anderson Cooper debuting in the fall, both of which could take potential time slots away from Couric.

Each of the companies has related news divisions where Couric could have some visibility before starting a talk show — at CBS, NBC or CNN, through Telepictures.

The personality that Couric could be expected to readily display on the talk show circuit could be seen last week in a video posted by aol.com. Couric, who has actively encouraged Americans to get colonoscopies since her husband died of colon cancer, took a humorous look at undergoing her own test. Her doctor jokingly noted that he had found a Batman doll while looking at Couric’s internal organs.

It’s a clever move: these promos serve to remind people that Charlie the character (and by extension, Sheen himself) is a problematic drinker, and right now that’s what the network is out to prove. If Charlie’s behavior indeed forced the show to shut down, then the actor’s contract with Warner Brothers for future compensation should the show resume without him (along with that $100 million lawsuit Sheen threw at the producers) would be null and void. But on a second, more exploitative level, these promos serve to draw in new viewers to old “Two and a Half Men” episodes who are only interested in the program as it relates to Sheen’s recent media blitz. Seeing these commercials, one might decide to watch the show for the same reason they watched Sheen’s appearance on “20/20″ or “Piers Morgan”: for the spectacle of a celebrity train wreck.

These promos seem to have been recently cut, as they aren’t to be found anywhere online. If these had been old ads for the show – meaning these were the episodes’ commercials before Charlie’s problems with Warner Bros. – wouldn’t they have been put up years ago? Has anyone else noticed these new ad spots for “Two and a Half Men” on TV?