Many reports of Sheen partying in Vegas, drinking heavily, and associating with ****stars had been over the Internet from the beginning of January 2011 and CBS had expressed its concern. Early in the morning of January 27, Sheen was rushed to hospital suffering from severe abdominal pains after holding a party at his house in which he allegedly smoked crack cocaine. After being released from the hospital, Sheen checked himself in to rehab. The show was previously put on hiatus,with production scheduled to resume on February 28. On February 24, 2011, it was announced that the show would shut down production for the rest of the season due to Sheen making offensive comments about the creator and lead writer of Two and a Half Men, Chuck Lorre, on the February 24 edition of a radio broadcast hosted by Alex Jones. On March 7, 2011, Sheen was fired from the show, which led to the cancellation of the remaining eight episodes. After much speculation if Sheen would return to the series after all in April 2011, Lorre announced that he had new plans to reboot Two and a Half Men with Jon Cryer in a lead role alongside a new character. Ashton Kutcher was later hired to portray the new character, Walden Schmidt.