My Own Worst Enemy: NBC Cancels Christian Slater TV Show

Though it was promoted ad nauseum during the coverage of the Summer Olympics, NBC could find few friends for their My Own Worst Enemy series. The TV show has been cancelled after airing just four episodes.

My Own Worst Enemy follows the strange life of Henry Spivey (Christian Slater), a hum-drum suburbanite with a wife and two kids (played by Madchen Amick, Taylor Lautner, and Bella Thorne). Unknown to Henry and his loved ones, he has a dual identity as a secret operative and trained killer named Edward Albright.

Edward works for a superspy organization under supervisor Mavis Heller (Alfre Woodard) and is partnered with friend and fellow operative Tom Grady/Raymond Carter (Mike O’Malley). Others in the series include Omid Abtahi, Saffron Burrows, James Cromwell, Sarai Givaty, Mark Ivanir, Mindy Sterling, Missy Yager, Eugenia Yuan, and Louis Giambalvo.

The show debuted on October 13, 2008 on NBC. Despite a lot of high-profile promotion, the premiere attracted only 7.27 million viewers and a 3.0/8 rating/share in the 18-49 demographic. The following week, the numbers dropped to 5.69 million and a 2.6/6. The most recent episode hit a low of 4.27 million and 1.8/5. Though Heroes has been struggling this season, Worst Enemy has been losing over 40% of its lead-in audience and more than that in the key demographic.

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NBC has announced that they are cancelling the series following the completion of its ninth episode. It’s been confirmed that the network plans to continue to air the series until all of the episodes have been shown.

If Worst Enemy goes uninterrupted, the series finale should air on December 15th, the same night as Heroes’ so-called “fall finale.” Because of the abrupt cancellation, fans of Worst Enemy aren’t expected to be given any kind of conclusion to the show’s ongoing storylines. That’s enough to make even mild-mannered Henry angry. Stay tuned!