NBC Tries to Copy Fox Hero Worship

A male movie star in the angst-ridden lead role. A gimmicky central conceit. A near-constant threat of torture or death.

The formula worked for Fox, which turned 24 into a smash hit when it debuted in 2001.

It's on shakier legs over at NBC, where the network is trying to breathe life into a similar premise with My Own Worst Enemy. The Christian Slater spy drama, meant to be the central show in NBC's fall lineup, debuted last week to a disappointing 7.3 million viewers.

"My Own Worst Enemy was tough to comprehend based on the promos," says Shari Anne Brill, senior vice president and director of programming at Carat, a media agency in New York. "You really couldn't get a sense of what the show was about."

Our quick synopsis: Slater plays an undercover agent, Edward, whose government-created cover and second personality, Henry, is a quiet family man who fumbles his way into the center of the action, showing up at inopportune moments, like an assassination in Russia, for example.

Easier to interpret are the show's debut numbers: "They weren't good," says Brill. And in light of weak performances by some of NBC's other fall debuts, including Kath & Kim and Knight Rider, the performance of the spy drama is all the more disappointing for the network.

"It just reinforces the need to make a pilot," says Brill, referring to the fact that some NBC fall shows were rushed into production, sans the vetting of an official pilot, due to the writer's strike earlier this year--a decision that Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, touted last spring as part of NBC's new, more cost-efficient business model.

"I know a lot of money gets put into pilots, but it's investment spending," counters Brill.

My Own Worst Enemy, which was heavily hyped on NBC before its debut, is part of a larger effort to bring big-screen stars to the network.

That idea is a lot like Fox's strategy, casting Kiefer Sutherland in the central role in 24 (and since then, adding Hugh Laurie to the network's lineup in House).

Also like 24, Enemy features a large crew of heavily accented bad guys, 24-esque action sequences, and plenty of near-escapes from torture, if not the gore-filled interrogations that are 24's specialty.

But efforts to replicate that show's success were made to little avail. When 24 debuted seven years ago, the show drew 11.6 million viewers--and even that was meager by the goals of Fox executives, who'd thrown plenty of network muscle behind marketing the series.

Despite a lead-in from Heroes, one of NBC's top scripted dramas--albeit one whose ratings have slipped this season--Enemy performed even worse.

To be fair, the Monday, 10 p.m. timeslot has been a tricky one for NBC to fill for some time now. Just a few seasons ago, that slot saw the demise of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, another much-hyped drama that eventually fell by the wayside.

Audience numbers for Enemy's second episode, on Monday night, weren't yet available. But some analysts contacted for this article suggested that the series could receive a boost in January, once Monday Night Football ends and a large chunk of male viewers, who should find the show appealing, is freed up.

After all, points out Brad Adgate, senior vice president at media-planning and buying agency Horizon Media, January is when the new season of 24 debuts, for much the same reason.

Besides, the premiere of Enemy, however weak, "is just one episode," says Adgate. "In this day and age, NBC is looking at other things besides just those numbers. The show will lend itself to DVD sales and people watching online." And even if the overall audience stays small, a committed group of viewers in the valuable 18 to 49 demographic could convince the network the show is worth saving.

Still, should the worst happen, and Enemy's numbers fall precipitously over the next several episodes, NBC could slot in a show like Medium, a reliable ratings bet, but one that wasn't scheduled to premiere until mid-season, or Kings, another new show from the network, in the place of Enemy.

In the meantime, if the show does fail, it may have turned NBC executives into, well, their own worst enemies.

Sophia Banay