greg vaughan, who had recently been let go from his role as diego guittierez on "the young and the restless", was cast shortly thereafter and first appeared on february 20, 2003. vaughan later described his screen test to "soap opera digest": "i was a little bit intimidated. i knew about the character, the foundation of the story. i knew it was a difficult task that i was about to take on." in july 2009, vaughan denied rumors that he was being let go or put on recurring status. that september, abc announced that vaughan had decided to leave to explore other opportunities, and that jackson would be reprising the role. however, vaughan announced via twitter that it was the network that decided to let him go. jackson stated upon returning: "it was a tough situation. i was not under any sort of headspace that someone was losing their job; it was that the role was opening up. (...) it was more of a confusing thing for me coming back and not knowing exactly what was going on, on the other end of things." vaughan last aired on october 20, 2009, while jackson first aired on october 27, 2009.