Just a week after announcing that the new "Chappelle's Show" season has been put on ice, Comedy Central is rolling out new episodes starting Tuesday night (May 10).

Sort of.

With the anticipated May 31 start date for the sketch show's third season now pushed back (see "Production On 'Chappelle's Show' Suspended"), the channel plans to air bonus footage from the upcoming season-two DVD (due in stores May 24) every Tuesday in May before re-runs of old episodes, according to a Comedy Central spokesperson. Fans can check out never-before-seen outtakes of skits featuring Chappelle as Samuel L. Jackson, Prince and Lil Jon, but for now that's all the new Chappelle they're going to see for a while.

"It was a 10-episode order, and I know they didn't shoot 10 episodes' worth of material," Chappelle's spokesperson, Matt Labov, said of the sketches that were completed for season three. "They don't shoot sequentially, so they'll shoot elements when someone is funny and available, but that doesn't mean it's for episode one or seven."

Labov didn't say how much material was completed before the show was put on hold, but he reiterated that the intention is for filming to resume as soon as all the issues that led to the surprise work stoppage are ironed out.

For now, nobody is talking about what those issues are. Labov told the New York Times last week that the star was not in rehab and is not suffering from cocaine addiction. "Obviously, I'm sure there's a lot of pressure, with the expectation of the fans, and the network and the expectation of the press," Labov told the paper. But in a story posted on Newsweek's Web site this week, the production halt was chalked up to a toxic combination of "pressure, partying [and] power struggles."

The magazine had visited Chappelle on the set of the show in November as he shot a sketch that was in keeping with his racially charged comedic style. In the bit, "The N----r Pixie," Chappelle wore blackface and played a "devil-on-the-shoulder creation who serves as the self-hating conscience of famous black men" like Tiger Woods. During the set visit, the reporter said, Chappelle appeared to be in control of the show, ad-libbing, chatting between takes and playing with his two little boys. At that point, season three was scheduled to begin February 16.

Two weeks later, production halted due to what was described as a nasty bout of the flu, bumping the debut of season three to May. Then came last week's surprise announcement, the night after the channel began hyping the new season and running ads promoting the DVD and the new season.

According to the Newsweek story, since signing an unprecedented $50 million deal last summer with Comedy Central (which, like MTV, is owned by Viacom) for two more seasons of his show, Chappelle has been thrown into a tailspin. The combination of the pressure to follow up the wildly popular second season, along with what friends describe as a hard-partying lifestyle and creative differences with the channel have reportedly put the comedian off his game.

"I saw him start trippin' when the buzz started to get real loud," an unnamed celebrity friend told Newsweek of Chappelle's demeanor following the breakout second season, which featured the popular series of Rick James sketches (see "Dave Chappelle: The Reason Grandmas Know Who Lil Jon Is"). "I think he was in shock after the first season, and then [during] the second, it hit him that he was the man. That freaked him. And then came the pressure of living up to expectations for the third season. He's never been there — where something's so good and you've got to come even stronger the next time. It was too much."

Another unnamed source, described as a "music industry pal," said of Chappelle's off-set activities, "Everyone knows Dave likes to have fun. ... I wouldn't say it's out of control ... but at some point that has to affect you if you've got a regular gig."

But another source described as being close to Chappelle told Newsweek the delay was about content more than too much partying or any health issues. While Chappelle is eager to push the envelope even further than he has in previous seasons, Comedy Central executives are reportedly wary. "Dave is not compromising what he wants to do," the source said. "He's waited a long time for this chance, and he's not trying to do anything that isn't 100 percent his vision."

A Comedy Central spokesperson denied that the work stoppage was related to creative differences.