Rob Lowe loses his bet as 'dr. vegas' gets the hook

NEW YORK -- 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 (9 p.m. 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 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."

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