Vince Bucci/VH1
Hope you weren’t jonesing for a Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew fix this year.
VH1 has no plans for a new season of the show, or its 2-year-old spinoff Celebrity Rehab Presents Sober House, in 2012, the network has confirmed.
Which makes sense, considering that the audience for the fifth-season finale in September dwindled to a mere 510,000 viewers, or half the audience that tuned in for the season-four finale.
But though Drew Pinsky is down, he’s not out.
MORE: Dr. Drew tells Farrah to quit crying and woman up on Teen Mom reunion show
A rep for VH1 says that the two Celebrity Rehab series have not been canceled, just put on hold due to scheduling issues while Pinsky focuses on his CW show, Lifechangers.
But some breathing room can’t hurt anyway.
Pinsky’s brand of televised treatment came under fire last year after two former Celebrity Rehab patients died of causes linked to their substance-abuse issues.
Actor Jeff Conaway, who appeared on season two, died in May of pneumonia and hospital records noted he was admitted with symptoms of a prescription-drug overdose, while original Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr died in March from a lethal combination of Xanax and alcohol.
As an alternative in the reality-TV department, VH1 will premiere the new series Relationship Rehab, according to EW.com, which first reported the Celebrity Rehab shelving.
GALLERY: Mysterious Hollywood Deaths
