  We compute the \alpha_s^2\beta_0 part of the two-loop QCD corrections to the
charged lepton spectrum in b \to c \ell \bar\nu_\ell decays and find them to be
about 50\% of the first order corrections at all lepton energies, except those
close to the end point. Including these corrections we extract the central
values \bar\Lambda=0.33 GeV and \lambda_1=-0.17 GeV^2 for the HQET matrix
elements and use them to determine the $\overline{\rm MS}$ b and c quark
masses, and |V_{cb}|.
