It should have been one of the new season’s hot new shows. “My Own Worst Enemy” had a movie star lead, a terrific timeslot and two weeks’ worth of heavy promotions during the Olympics.

But after just four episodes, NBC’s new Christian Slater drama has been axed, a victim of low ratings and a confusing plotline that never really captured viewers’ interest.

The cancellation is no big surprise. “Enemy” slipped to a series-low 1.8 adults 18-49 rating in its Monday 10 p.m. slot earlier this week, losing half its “Heroes” lead-in.

That sparked speculation that NBC would soon end or relocate the show.

The network has not yet said what it will plug into the slot or if the remaining five episodes of “Enemy” will be shown.

But it highlights two problems that NBC has struggled with the past few years, development and filling the post-“Heroes” timeslot.

This year none of the network’s new shows are averaging more than a 2.6 rating. The network had already extended full-season orders to “Knight Rider,” which slipped to a series-low 1.6 last week, and “Kath & Kim,” which has fallen in nearly every outing.

There was no way NBC could afford to keep another show that had slipped below the 2.0 mark on the schedule, especially behind its top-rated drama.

In three years, “Heroes” has never found a compatible lead-out. Last year’s “Journeyman” and the previous year’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” were both canceled after one season, and other shows, like “The Black Donnellys,” have cycled in and out of the slot without any luck.

What will end up behind “Heroes” remains to be seen. The network doesn’t have too many choices, as it also yesterday canceled struggling second-year drama “Lipstick Jungle,” which recently moved to Fridays.

“Enemy’s” biggest problem may have been its somewhat convoluted plot. Slater played a secret agent with separate home and work lives, complicated by the fact that he also had a split personality.

His randy secret agent and his namby-pamby family man personas knew nothing of the other until something went wrong and he began to realize that he was, as the promos darkly warned, his own worst enemy.

NBC had high hopes for the show, giving it a huge amount of exposure on its much-watched Summer Olympics. But while Slater is a name, his hit films are years behind him, and the show received mixed reviews.

The network is said to be interested in keeping Slater on for future projects, however.