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“Gone Too Far,” the eight-part reality series featuring drug interventions, will premiere at 10 p.m. Monday on MTV, despite a controversy over its late host.

The series has the late DJ AM traveling the country with a team of professionals and confronting addicts. He also helped stage interventions, with the help of the addict’s friends and family.

Ironically, DJ AM, who had been battling his own addictions for years, died of an accidental drug overdose three days after filming wrapped on the show.

MTV mulled over whether to air the series because of how DJ AM died, but, ultimately, decided to go with it.

Halls resident Chris Webber, who is one of the addicts featured on the show, said he thinks “Gone” should air.

Despite its host dying from drugs, the series will still be an inspiration for many, Webber said.

“It just shows you that people who have been in recovery for 11 years (such as DJ AM) can go too far. It will be such an inspiration.

“... He saved eight other (addicts) who took part in the show. I’d be dead if it weren’t for DJ AM.”

An air date has not been announced for the episode featuring Webber and shot in Knoxville over the summer.

The 22-year-old Webber has been hooked on prescription pain pills for almost a decade.

The MTV series arms an addict’s friends and families with cameras and asks them to document the addict’s behavior and how it harms relationships.

DJ AM and MTV helped Webber get into a center in Palm Springs, Calif., where he stayed 52 days. Webber says, during that stay, DJ AM was a source of strength for him.

He was still in rehab when he got the news DJ AM had died.

“I’m not angry at him now. I know how powerful the disease is,” Webber, who is attending support meetings, said. “Every day is a struggle. Sometimes it is a minute at a time.”

Other highlights for the week of Oct. 11-17 (All times Eastern; Listings subject to change; Check local listings):

SUNDAY

-- “Army Wives” (10 p.m. Lifetime). Change is in the wind for the wives and their husbands when a general pays a visit.

-- “The Girls Next Door” (10:30 p.m. E!). Hugh Hefner gets three new girlfriends, who, of course, love him for his youthful appearance and vigor.

TUESDAY

-- “Hubble’s Amazing Rescue” (8 p.m. PBS). The Earth-bound plan that saved the world’s best-known telescope from petering out in space is revealed.

WEDNESDAY

-- “Mary, Queen of Shops” (9 p.m. BBC America). A sassy British retail guru comes to the aid of failing businesses in this new reality show.

FRIDAY

-- “Ugly Betty” (8 p.m. ABC). The ugly duckling swims over to a new night and time.

SATURDAY

-- “Sorority Wars” (9 p.m. Lifetime). A pledge makes her mother and her would-be sorority angry when she changes her mind about what club she’s joining.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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