The twelfth and final season of Two and a Half Men premiered on October 30, 2014. It was announced that a one-hour series finale of the show would air on February 19, 2015, with the number of episodes aired being 262. The season brought the show back to the way it originally began: two dissimilar men working together to raise a child. Production Two and a Half Men was renewed for a twelfth season on March 13, 2014. It was announced on May 14, 2014 that it would be the final season of the show, making it one of the longest running live-action sitcoms on American television. At the executive session panel at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills on June 19, 2014, CBS President Nina Tassler announced the story arc for the season. During this season, which was described by Tassler as a season-long event to conclude the show by Chuck Lorre, Walden (Ashton Kutcher) would experience a health scare in the opening episode and, "he wants to find a way to add more meaning to his life, so he decides he wants to adopt a child and in doing so, he starts the process and realizes that it's very difficult to adopt a child as a single, straight man," Tassler said. "So once and for all he decides, 'I'm going to propose to Alan (Jon Cryer) and we're going to get married and adopt a child as a gay couple." Show producer Chuck Lorre explained the future gay wedding as bringing the show to a full circle. Lorre said that the marriage would be about raising a child with 'a great deal of love' and not their sexuality. "You're going to see two men who are not gay but are going to raise a child with a great deal of love and attention. Their sexuality is irrelevant to loving and caring for a child, which maybe that's the big story that we wind up telling: taking a kid out of the system and giving him a home. What's better than that?" he added. He promised that there would be a wedding and hoped no offense would be taken. Lorre said that "this seems like the next logical step. Not romance, not sex, raising a child." Jon Cryer was reluctant to do the storyline when he first heard it, but was convinced when it was explained