CBS’ ‘dr. vegas’ withdrawn from schedule

Rob Lowe, who flopped last season in an 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 on Friday at 10 p.m., 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.

Pride’ goeth for the fall

“Father of the Pride” will be caged for the November sweeps.

NBC’s computer-animated comedy, based on the Las Vegas act that featured magicians Siegfried & Roy and their big cats, will return in December with the last six of the 13 episodes ordered by the network.

The network had no comment on the future of the series. “Father of the Pride” has failed to deliver ratings to match its reported $2 million per episode price tag.

The series started under a cloud. While it was in production, Roy Horn suffered a near fatal tiger mauling on stage that ended his long-running act with Siegfried Fischbacher.

Despite the attack, NBC expressed confidence in the project from the DreamWorks SKG studio. After a respectable start ratings started to slip, with the series attracting 6.6 million viewers last week compared to 12.4 million for the Aug. 31 debut.