Charlie Sheen’s ‘Today’ Show Interview Smashes Ratings, Receives Huge Response

You could say that Charlie Sheen is winning. He made an appearance on Tuesday morning’s Today show to reveal his HIV diagnosis to Matt Lauer.

Charlie Sheen’s Today show smashed major records. NBC News reported that Sheen’s interview on Tuesday morning drew a large a number of track to the Today website. The site had well over 100,000 viewers for at least an hour during the show. In addition, Today has received over 1 million unique visitors during the 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. EST timeline, according to a NBC News rep.

Charlie Sheen’s interview with Matt Lauer took place exactly at 7:40 a.m. ET on the Today show. The daytime talk show then shared a video of Sheen’s segment on Today. Sheen then appeared again on the Today show during the 8 o’clock hour with his doctor to discuss his HIV diagnosis.

NBC was the first to report that Charlie Sheen was scheduled to make a “revealing personal announcement,” following last week’s rumors that a major Hollywood A-list actor has been diagnosed with HIV for the past few years.

This is the second time that Today has received major records for one of their sit-down interviews. Back in June 16, 2015, the show had an exclusive interview with Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP leader who was accused of lying about her race, when the site received 75,000 visitors to its website.

On Tuesday morning, Charlie Sheen, 50, revealed to Matt Lauer that he’s been diagnosed with HIV about four years ago. Sheen said that the reason for his public announcement was because he was faced with “shakedowns” and “extortions” from countless women, whom he paid millions of dollars, who threatened to identify his health condition.

One of those women is rumored to be Taylor Tilden whose real name is Kira Montgomery. According to Celebricity, she received millions from Charlie so she wouldn’t expose his HIV status to the public. An inside source by the name of Georgia Jones told the celebrity gossip blog that Tara and her partner are not living off Charlie’s money.

“She used some of Charlie’s money to buy a house in Calabasas…And got married to a tattoo artist. His name is Jay De Anda..He used to work at an ink spot over in North Hollywood. They’re both living off money they extorted from Charlie Sheen.”

In addition, Charlie Sheen’s health status was exposed in the Sony Hack Emails from the WikiLeaks’ website.

Not only did Sheen’s interview on Today show break records, but it also received overwhelming support from both fans and celebrities. According to Today host Tamron Hall, the Anger Management star has received “great support” from people online shortly after his interview aired. “The reaction has been of great support to Charlie Sheen,” she told Willie Geist, Natalie Morales, and Al Roker. She called it a “flashpoint” reaction.

Some of those responses were from big names such as Heather Locklear and Magic Johnson. First, Charlie Sheen’s former Spin City co-star took to Instagram to share a heartfelt post after the Today show interview.

“My heart hurts. Prayers for Charlie and his family,” she wrote in the caption alongside an old photo of the two actors.

Magic Johnson took to Twitter to share his support for the former Two and a Half Men star. The athlete who revealed his HIV-positive diagnosis in 1991 at a press conference wrote, “I wish @CharlieSheen and his family the best. With the advancement in treatments and medicine he can fight this disease and live a long life.”

As for Charlie Sheen’s fans, most were shocked to hear that the rumors were true. Meanwhile, there were remarks about Sheen’s “tiger blood,” which he previously claimed helped him with his substance abuse. There were also some that weren’t so shocked and even made jokes about Sheen’s health. But amid all the snarky comments and insensitive jokes, there were hundreds of fans that tweeted their support for Sheen and will hope that his Today interview will stop the stigma against those who have HIV.

Did you watch Charlie Sheen’s interview on the Today show? What are your thoughts? Sound off below in the comments section.

[Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images]