CBS Yanks Lowe's New Series 'Dr. Vegas'

NEW YORK (AP) _ Rob Lowe, who flopped last season in a freshman NBC drama, lost another bet Tuesday as his new series, ``dr. vegas,'' was yanked by CBS. <br/><br/>Calling the sudden disappearance

Wednesday, November 3rd 2004, 10:49 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Rob Lowe, who flopped last season in a freshman NBC drama, lost another bet Tuesday as his new series, ``dr. vegas,'' was yanked by CBS.

Calling the sudden disappearance a ``hiatus,'' CBS announced that a repeat episode of its hit drama ``Without a Trace'' would air this week in the slot (10 p.m. EST Friday) followed the rest of November by reruns of ``Cold Case,'' ``CSI: Miami'' and ``CSI.''

There was no mention of a future return by ``dr. vegas,'' which ranked 58th last week in audience with 7.3 million viewers _ losing 2.1 million viewers from its lead-in, ``JAG.''

It was Lowe's third series in as many years. After leaving NBC's ``The West Wing'' in 2003, he returned in the fall to head up a legal drama, ``The Lyon's Den,'' which was canceled midseason.

On ``dr. vegas'' he starred as Dr. Billy Grant, the in-house physician at a posh Las Vegas casino who had a rollicking after-hours lifestyle. Lowe's co-star on the drama was Joe Pantoliano, himself on the rebound from last season's failed CBS crime show, ``The Handler.''

``dr. vegas'' wasn't the only series to have seized on Las Vegas as a storytelling site. ``CSI'' has made hay with crime procedurals set amid Vegas' glitz and decay, while NBC's ``Las Vegas'' dwells in its own glamorous casino-resort, the Montecito.

In an interview with The Associated Press when ``dr. vegas'' premiered in September, Lowe contrasted his new series with his more sober-minded past efforts.

``I thought it would be fun to try a show that had a higher element of devil-may-care entertainment,'' Lowe said. ``This is not HBO, not groundbreaking. That's not what I'm trying to do. ... `dr. vegas' is a guilty pleasure without the guilt _ let's hope.''