TV’s Most Hated Characters of All Time

In the thick of TV season, viewers are bound to love and hate some of the characters they meet along the way. Then, there are the characters that writers don’t necessarily anticipate viewers hating, but for some reason, they annoy the pants off of everyone who watches. From the Kimmy Gibler’s to King Joffrey’s, here are the most hated TV characters of all time…

Joffrey Baratheon of “Game of Thrones”

Oh, Joffrey–how we loathe thee. From the moment viewers met him they absolutely despised him. He was a liar and quite frankly, a sadistic little brat. It certainly didn’t help that he was the product of incest, but Jack Gleeson’s acting really brought it home. Not to mention it was his fault Lady was killed and Nymeria had to run away.

Cousin Oliver of “The Brady Bunch”

One of the worst attempts at salvaging a show was the introduction of cousin Oliver. The addition of children to aging shows is literally now known as the “Cousin Oliver Syndrome.”

Pete Campbell of “Mad Men”

Pete Campbell was a smug little rat on “Mad Men.” He was entitled and abused his power, especially when it came to women. He cheated on his wide, talked down to his female coworkers, and even raped his neighbor’s au pair. If you liked Pete Campbell, you have questionable and troubling morals, to say the least.

Michael Scott of “The Office”

Michael Scott was a terrible boss. He was rude, selfish, overstepped his boundaries with employees, and got involved in everyone’s business. He made for some hilarious scenes, but overall, he was a jerk.

Piper Chapman of “Orange Is the New Black”

Piper arrived at the prison a whiny and entitled woman, and prison didn’t change her a bit. It’s no wonder she got a swastika carved into her arm.

Will Schuester of “Glee”

Even though he was awarded teacher of the year at McKinley High, Schuester was actually just a sad grown-up trying to live vicariously through his students. When he suspended Marley for refusal to wear a seashell bikini for a performance, viewers were less than impressed with him.

Dan Scott of “One Tree Hill”

Dan Scott was pure evil. He was a horrible father and pressured his sons, even though he was only present for one of them. He even went as far as killing his own brother from jealousy and anger.

Andy Bernard of “The Office”

Andy’s obsession with Cornell, his toxic insecurity, and his anger issues were great but then he overstayed his welcome. He was hands down the most obnoxious and selfish character on the show.

Angelica Pickles of “The Rugrats”

Angelica was your standard spoiled brat. Her parents were absent so they gave her whatever she wanted. She was mean to her little cousins and always blamed them for the messes she made.

Miranda of “Sex and The City”

Let’s face it, Miranda was a control freak. She would hold grudges against the other girls for quite a long time all because they didn’t live their lives by her own rigid code of conduct. She had this ‘holier than thou’ attitude that she weaponized.

Dawn Summers of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”

Randomly during season five, Dawn, the sister we never knew Buffy had, appeared and then became the center of the universe for an entire season. And then, instead of just killing her off after her original storyline, they kept her through the remaining seasons. Not a great choice.

Scrappy-Doo of “Scooby-Doo”

Scooby-Doo’s nephew, Scrappy, is now the infamous example of networks drafting up new characters for TV shows in an attempt to revive ratings. In the 2000s live-action film, Scrappy even became the antagonist.

Kimmy Gibler of “Full House” & “Fuller House”

Kimmy was always harmless, but the whole “smelly feet” gag and overstaying her welcome got a little overdone. She’s just one of those annoying characters in a show that’s there and you feel like you have to just tolerate them just like the rest of the cast.

Jeremy Jamm of “Parks & Recreation”

Jeremy was the misogynistic councilman who was the bane of Leslie Knope’s existence. He was condescending and rude and everyone in Pawnee hated the guy.

Jenny Humphrey of “Gossip Girl”

Jenny Humphrey began as the ultimate desperate, try-hard social climber on Gossip Girl. She then evolved into this emo, wild child, that eventually left town and viewers didn’t exactly miss her.

Andrea Harrison of “The Walking Dead”

The problem with Andrea Harrison was that she was beloved in the comic, but hated in the television show. She was hot-headed and proud and refused to see that The Governor wasn’t exactly the best leader in the zombie apocalypse.

Serena Joy of “The Handmaid’s Tale”

While there appear to be some times when Serena seems like somewhat a of a human with a functioning heart, there are so many more moments where she is evil. Not to mention she had a major role in setting up Gilead in the first place.

Ted Mosby of “How I Met Your Mother”

Ted was a frustrating and honestly, pretty annoying, character on HIMYM. He was always obsessing over his search for the perfect woman in NYC and it was exhausting and a bit too much.

Dawson Leery on “Dawson’s Creek”

Dawson was the melodramatic lead of Dawson’s Creek and his crying face has become an internet meme. He’s a self-described “sensitive guy” which makes him come off as morally superior which is pretty much the most annoying thing ever.

Paige McCullers of “Pretty Little Liars”

Paige was just disliked by fans. She started off as Emily’s rival on the swim team and then they ended up dating, but her competitive and proud personality continued to cause issues for Emily and her friends.

Ross Geller of “Friends”

Ross Geller was an insufferable character. He was whiney and miserable and believed that all women owed him something. He assumed Rachel should just love him, but then constantly played the victim when she didn’t and even sabotaged her relationships with other men.

Madison Sinclair of “Veronica Mars”

Madison was one of Veronica’s biggest enemies on the show. She has a severe superiority complex and made everyone’s lives miserable. Luckily, Veronica got a bit of revenge when she punched Madison in the fave in the movie.

Ellis Boyd of “Smash”

The show itself was a mess, and then there was Ellis. Ellis personified everything people ate about millennials, but really he was just conniving, arrogant, and untrustworthy.

Sheldon Cooper of “The Big Bang Theory”

Sheldon is one of the most interesting sitcom characters we love to hate. He has a very high IQ which lends itself to him being arrogant and insensitive, but he also can’t understand social concepts like sarcasm which makes for some occasionally interesting banter.

April Kepner of “Grey’s Anatomy”

Kepner was just an all-around pretty annoying character overall. She was boring in the earlier seasons and then randomly developed an attitude that was inconsistent throughout. She had a slight improvement before she left the show but it wasn’t very redeeming for her.

Screech Powers of “Save by the Bell”

Screech was Saved By the Bell’s male Kimmy Gibler meets Big Bang’s Sheldon Cooper. He was annoying, very smart, and couldn’t take a hint. Over time he just festered and got more and more irritating for viewers.

George Costanza of “Seinfeld”

While all the Seinfeld characters aren’t likable for one reason or another, George is definitely the worst. He’s a schemer and a cheapskate through and through.

Eric Forman of “That ’70s Show”

The show revolved around Eric but he was unlikable in that he was unmotivated and lazy. He did not deserve Donna and when he left for Africa during season seven, nobody missed him.

Beans of “Even Stevens”

“Even Stevens” was a classic in the early years of Disney Channel’s original series and Beans was the annoying gross “little brother” type that was gross and always made you roll your eyes.

Ned Flanders of “The Simpsons”

While Ned started out as Homer’s do-gooder neighbor, eventually his strong religious views led him to look down at anyone who didn’t align with his belief system. Homer even wrote a song called “Everybody Hates Ned Flanders” all about him.

Marnie Michaels of “Girls”

Marnie was all-around difficult to like. She was self-centered, picked the worst men, and had seemingly zero self-awareness when it came to other people.

Janice Litman of “Friends”

Janice was lovable and also unlikeable at the same time. Her voice and laugh were enough to drive you up a wall, but she was also a bit of an icon at the same time.

Frasier Crane of “Frasier”

Frasier originated on Cheers and then got his own show which ran for eleven seasons. He was self-centered and snobby to pretty much everyone else on the show.

Oliver Trask of “The OC”

Oliver was the standard teen villain. He was obsessed with Marissa Cooper and went from sabotaging her relationship to full out stalking her. Good times.

Richard Hendricks as “Silicon Valley”

Richard is an interesting character. You got from rooting for him to despising him the minute he gets a win. When he’s on top he is cocky and karma usually comes back to bite him.

Jake Ballard of “Scandal”

Jake was the worst. He tried to influence Olivia’s decisions even though he said he loved her. He killed without remorse and was creepy and stalker-ish with Olivia and Fitz.

Paige Jennings of “The Americans”

Many fans found Paige to be annoying and this was escalated when she started to dig into her parents’ backgrounds which inevitably put everyone at risk. Fans even wrote to the creators asking for her to be killed off the show.

Dennis Reynolds of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”

It’s hard to stand out on a show based around people how are mean, but Dennis takes the cake. He’s a cruel sociopath with a cringey-but-hilarious role.

Rory Gilmore of “Gilmore Girls”

Rory started off as a straight-laced goodie-two-shoes, but as the show went on, she totally unraveled. She had questionable morals when it came to men, treated her mother like a second-class citizen, and was extremely entitled due to her wealthy grandparents paying for her fancy private school and Ivy League education.

Nikki and Paulo of “Lost”

This couple that was supposed to be the answer to what happened to the other survivors of the plane crash was awkwardly added to the show and viewers resented them. Not to mention, they were also just terrible humans. Viewers didn’t even believe that they were on the island the whole time.

Bill Compton of “True Blood”

Bill was boring and honestly, even though he was the “villain” he was still a very unlikable villain…if that makes sense. He was the leading man and he just didn’t do it for us.

Olly of “Game of Thrones”

Olly is unlikable simply because he was a nuisance that was written just for the show. At first, you felt bad for him because his parents were murdered in front of him, but then he begins to hate Jon Snow and participates in his assassination, so…bye Olly.

Julie Taylor of “Friday Night Lights”

Julie filled the typical angsty teen archetype on the show. She was always fighting with her perfect parents, and she cheated on the god that is Matt Saracen.

Jonah Ryan of “Veep”

Jonah was a pest of a character. He oozed toxic masculinity and was the ultimate arrogant, brown-noser who bragged about his ability to sleep with women.

Alan Harper of “Two and a Half Men”

Alan is a free-loading chiropractor that lives with his rich brother. Why can he not live on his own? Nobody knows. Even when Charlie was killed off the show and Kutcher came in to play the millionaire who bought Charlie’s home, Alan STILL managed to live there. It’s just weird.

Bevers of “Broad City”

Bevers is pretty much the worst TV roommate of all time. He’s messy, inconsiderate, and pushes the buttons of every viewer.

Emile Danko of “Heroes”

Danko led a task force to take down the superheroes and he took advantage of his limited power but wasn’t quite a top-notch villain.

Janice of “The Sopranos”

Janice was terribly annoying. She was similar to her brother Tony, just without the mafia power. She was a liar, a backstabber, and a thief and she was just straight up irritating.

Ramsay Bolton of “Game of Thrones”

Ramsay was cruel and sadistic. He was born a bastard and was legitimized, which was overall just stupid, to begin with. When he was legitimized he grew power-hungry and embodied evil. He repeatedly raped Sansa, tortured Theon Greyjoy, and thankfully, was murdered brutally by his own dogs thanks to Sansa, after taking a beating from Jon Snow.

Dana Brody of “Homeland”

At first, viewers didn’t hate her, but then everything seemed to conspire against Dana. Her angst was insufferable and so were her numerous boyfriends.

The Interns of “Grey’s Anatomy”

This show has carried on so long that it was inevitable they had to bring in new interns, but because of that, they seem disposable and just there to manipulate current main characters’ plotlines.

Healy of “Orange Is the New Black”

Healy is a prick who deserves to be behind bars more than some of the inmates on the show. He’s homophobic and evil and tries to get some redemption later in the seasons but no, no redemption for Healy. Ever.

Dr. Romano of “ER”

Romano was always a pompous, arrogant jerk. Very few even attended his funeral because he made the lives of almost everyone at the hospital miserable.

Emily of “Friends”

Emily was sweet, but she was also incredibly controlling and uptight. Ross married her after ten episodes, but it took just one scene for everyone to hate her.

Andie of “Dawson’s Creek”

Viewers were happy to see Pacey date someone his own age but Andie was a nagging know-it-all. When they broke up, Andie was just annoying and painful to listen to.

Tess of “Roswell”

Before her time on Lost, she played a pregnant alien that attempted to get between Max and Liz. Sacrificing herself in the end was the best thing she could have done for everyone.

Terri Schuester of “Glee”

Terri was actually pretty creepy. With her beady eyes and needy, whiny, desperate attitude and you know, the whole part where she tried to pay one of her husband’s students for her child, Terri was terrible. Coincidence? Nope.

Skyler White of “Breaking Bad”

Skyler was manipulative and downright annoying. She shamed Walter for trying to do whatever he could to keep his family afloat when she literally didn’t do anything for their family and he was the sick one of the pair.

Meg of “Supernatural”

The issue with this character was that the original actress was replaced and then she became intolerable. She’s wishy-washy and was responsible for the deaths of Ellen and Jo.

Laurel Lance of “Arrow”

Her character is so confusing and Arrow doesn’t even know what to do with her. She’s had various love interests and identities, and it’s just chaos.

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The More You Know

  • I Love Lucy' developed modern sitcom filming methods
  • Game of Thrones made television history with "Baelor," the final episode of the first season, by killing off Ned Stark (played by Sean Bean), the main character of the show
  • Arguably the most culturally influential American sit-com ever created, Seinfeld ran from 1989 to 1998 and is still making money for its creators and stars.
  • The Jeffersons: For two years, Marla Gibbs, who played Florence, kept her job at United Airlines in customer service while simultaneously filming for the show. Sometimes people would recognize her voice over the phone.

Post originally appeared on Upbeat News.