History CreatorsPet / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' has Felicity Smoak, starting in the third season. In seasons 1 & 2, she's an {{Adorkable}} IT Girl with an unrequited crush on the main character, and the source of a lot of the show's humor. Starting in the third season, she supplants Laurel Lance (Green Arrow's iconic LoveInterest from the source material) as the female lead & love interest, takes on several of the traits that once led to Laurel & Thea being considered TheScrappy, receives more screentime than any other character on the show aside from Oliver Queen, is consistently depicted as being in the right even when she is being unreasonable, receives CharacterShilling from seemingly every other character on the show - including the antagonists - and becomes a SpotlightStealingSquad with a good chunk of seasons 3 & 4 being dedicated to her subplots. In comparison, the characters of Roy, Laurel and Thea are pushed OutOfFocus despite becoming the show's incarnations of Arsenal, Black Canary & Speedy; and the EnsembleDarkhorse Diggle only receives a proper subplot in season 4 because it's tied so closely to the main plot and, outside of that, doesn't receive that much attention either. On top of all of this, season 4 opens with the reveal that a major character would killed off by the end of the season, and Felicity was one of two characters deemed untouchable by the writers - the other being the main character. It all culminated in the ending of the crossover ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'', in which she steals the special moment of one of comics' most iconic couples, [[SuperCouple Barry Allen and Iris West,]] literally interrupting them in the middle of their vows to tack on her own wedding to Oliver.

** Charlie Bradbury. While fan reaction is [[BaseBreakingCharacter very mixed]], she definitely qualifies by her second appearance. If being an over-the-top {{adorkable}} genius hacker (that even BigBad Dick Roman [[CharacterShilling thinks is amazing and special]]) who just happens to be a lesbian wasn't enough, she returns in a later episode, where she's introduced beating a LARP-knight in a swordfight and gets talked up by more and more characters. And in her next episode, she suddenly has ImprobableAimingSkills, a BelatedBackstory, and is an AscendedFangirl. Additionally, she's an AuthorAvatar for [[http://missyjack.livejournal.com/954514.html writer Robbie Thompson]]. It also doesn't help that she ended up being a rather unsubtle mouthpiece for the writers' political views. [[spoiler: That being said, the fandom was able to warm up to her well enough before she got StuffedInTheFridge, which caused '''loads''' of backlash from both fans and even the actors on the show.]]

* Ryan O’Reily from Series/Oz. He manipulates everyone he comes into contact with for his own personal gain (including his own brother) And many times his rivals or pawns are dumbed down for the sake of successfully manipulate them, is treated to a semi-sympathetic battle with breast cancer, is rarely in the crosshairs of anyone, arranges or is somehow connected to several deaths in the prison (including Dr. Nathan's husband, who treated him when he had cancer) and ends up with her in the end.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Riley. Whedon never wanted the vampire romance, so when he got the opportunity to give Buffy a human LoveInterest, the writers spent so long making him "not Angel" that they forgot to give Riley any actual personality or chemistry with Buffy. Despite that, many characters [[CharacterShilling constantly mention how he's the nicest guy around and how great of a couple he and Buffy make]]. This reached its breaking point in Season 5's "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E10IntoTheWoods Into the Woods]]", where Buffy finds out Riley is addicted to [[FantasticDrug letting vampires bite him]], for which he blames Buffy for liking bad boys and thus emasculating him (even though it actually stems from his own issues about not being able to handle dating a girl stronger than him) and not giving him enough attention, completely forgetting that Buffy wasn't hanging out with anyone so she could take care of her sick mother, who has a ''brain tumor''. After all this, the series wants you to take Riley's side, and Xander rants that Buffy is screwing up her chance at love and guilt-trips her into taking him back. When he returns in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E15AsYouWere As You Were]]", none of his faults are brought up again and he leaves HappilyMarried, this time to a BadassNormal who is, indeed, weaker than him, while even Buffy now believes she should have been with him. As an ameliorating factor, at one of Buffy's lowest points, he unhesitatingly reveals his faith in her and states that she's probably the most amazing person he knows.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Riley. Whedon never wanted the vampire romance, so when he got the opportunity to give Buffy a human LoveInterest, the writers spent so long making him "not Angel" that they forgot to give Riley any actual personality or chemistry with Buffy. Despite that, many characters [[CharacterShilling constantly mention how he's the nicest guy around and how great of a couple he and Buffy make]]. This reached its breaking point in Season 5's "Into The Woods", where Buffy finds out Riley is addicted to [[FantasticDrug letting vampires bite him]], for which he blames Buffy for liking bad boys and thus emasculating him (even though it actually stems from his own issues about not being able to handle dating a girl stronger than him) and not giving him enough attention, completely forgetting that Buffy wasn't hanging out with anyone so she could take care of her sick mother, who has a ''brain tumor''. After all this, the series wants you to take Riley's side, and Xander rants that Buffy is screwing up her chance at love and guilt-trips her into taking him back. When he returns in season 6, none of his faults are brought up again and he leaves HappilyMarried, this time to a BadassNormal who is, indeed, weaker than him, while even Buffy now believes she should have been with him. As an ameliorating factor, at one of Buffy's lowest points, he unhesitatingly reveals his faith in her and states that she's probably the most amazing person he knows.

* From ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'', Sophie was originally intended to stick around for a few episodes as a more or less one-off character; however, her [[TheDitz airheaded]] CloudCuckoolander personality made her well-liked by viewers, so she eventually became a series mainstay. But {{Flanderization}} set in fast, so that by the start of season 3, her likeable traits were all but gone, transforming her character into little more than a [[NoIndoorVoice loudmouthed]], [[AnythingThatMoves sex-crazed]] {{Jerkass}}. Yet as viewer opinion of her plummeted, the show's focus on her soared, to the point that the plotlines of some episodes and even the story arcs behind entire seasons became focused around her, and viewers cringed with anticipation of the [[OnceAnEpisode inevitable]] "[[CatchPhrase Hey everybody!]]" "[[StudioAudience WooOOOooo!]]" that marked her appearance in each episode. The show's declining ratings can be pinpointed to the moment Sophie [[SpotlightStealingSquad hijacked the show]], and they didn't have far to slip before the show was ultimately canned in 2017.
* Babe Carey from ''Series/AllMyChildren''. She is introduced as the new wife of JR Chandler, son of Adam Chandler, one of the richest men in Pine Valley and a common antagonist. Up to the day [[spoiler: her character was killed off]] she was hailed by the residents of Pine Valley as a sweet, wonderful person. One character even described her as a "walking miracle". Well, this walking miracle was exposed for being a gold-digger and bigamist, but worst of all a kidnapper. Because when she realized the baby she’d thought was hers was in fact her best friend Bianca's child, she decided to keep the child anyway and not tell Bianca her dead baby was still alive. She only gave the baby back to Bianca when she found out her own thought-to-be-dead child was still alive. By this point a whole year had passed with her keeping this secret. But then she proceeded to tell JR that ''their'' child was dead and then ran off with Jamie with her newfound child. Not only did several people in Pine Valley support Babe and Jamie with their crimes and deception, but the ENTIRE TOWN actually rallied around them against JR when he dared to try and fight for his son. INCLUDING BIANCA. What stands out most is when everyone had thought Babe had been the victim of a serial killer that had killed other more predominant characters. With the exception of Erica Kane, everyone grieved for her passing as though she was an important family member to every character. And everyone rejoiced when it was revealed that she was actually alive, to the point that Bianca ''actually begged for Babe's forgiveness for not forgiving her''.
** Since she came to town, Dixie Cooney was consistently portrayed as the town sweetheart, heroine, saint, etc., despite the fact that she participated in the same shenanigans as most of the other characters--adultery, promiscuity. When ex-husband Adam sued her for custody of their son--JR, incidentally--much like JR would be 20-something years later, HE was the one vilified by everyone, despite his completely legitimate concerns about Dixie's unstable behavior.
* Chris Lilley's series ''Series/AngryBoys'' has African-American rapper S'mouse who was hated by all critics and fans, some said he was racist, some said he was 2 dimensional, others found it plain not funny. Unfortunately, there wasn't really anything that could be done to write the character out of the show.
* Since the start of the third season of ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', Felicity Smoak. In seasons 1 & 2, she was an {{Adorkable}} IT Girl with an unrequited crush on the main character, and the source of a lot of the show's humour. As of the third season, she has supplanted Laurel Lance (Green Arrow's iconic LoveInterest from the source material) as the female lead & love interest, has taken on several of the traits that once led to Laurel & Thea being considered TheScrappy, receives more screentime than any other character on the show aside from Oliver Queen, is consistently depicted as being in the right even when she is being unreasonable, receives CharacterShilling from seemingly every other character on the show - including the antagonists, and has become a SpotlightStealingSquad with a good chunk of seasons 3 & 4 being dedicated to her subplots. In comparison, the characters of Roy, Laurel and Thea are pushed OutOfFocus despite becoming the show's incarnations of Arsenal, Black Canary & Speedy; and Diggle (Arguably the show's true fan favourite character) only received a proper subplot in season 4 because it was tied so closely to the main plot and, outside of that, he didn't receive that much attention either. On top of all of this, season 4 opens with the reveal that a major character would killed off by the end of the season, and Felicity was one of two characters deemed untouchable by the writers - the other being the main character. It all culminated in the ending of the crossover ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'' in which her stealing the special moment of one of comics' most iconic couples, [[SuperCouple Barry Allen and Iris West,]] literally interrupting them in the middle of their vows to tack on her own wedding to Oliver.
* In the American ''Series/BigBrother'' the editors tend to pick their favourites out of the cast and show them off to us. The problem is, they think we'll like them too and if we don't, we'll LoveToHate them. But we'll often just hate them instead. Most often, it's a Showmance couple who get the lion's share of screentime on the highlights just kissing and hugging each other.
** Brendon and Rachel in Season ''12'' and ''13'', but especially 13. The eight new houseguests have had virtually no screentime whatsoever unless they were Dominic or Kalia, and Kalia only because she was aligned with Daniele who turned traitor to the "Veterans Alliance". 50% of the screentime is dedicated to Brendon and Rachel, while 40% is dedicated to Jeff and Jordan, 5% is dedicated to Daniele and Dominic but later Kalia (only because she won a Head of Household competition and aligned with Daniele). The remaining 5% is split between the rest of the cast, with Porsche and Lawon hit the hardest. (Don't know who they are? Well, you're not alone - the editors seem to have forgotten they were cast too.)
** Some see Jeff and Jordan as the Creator's Pet because BB's producers want to make a good show, which means putting in a bunch of safeguards and slanting the show so that Jeff and Jordan will be on as long as possible, at the expense of the other extras on the show. Jeff has been getting this more so than Jordan in recent seasons, as he now works for Big Brother (interviewing the contestants, commenting on episodes, etc). Because of this, the producers are more eager than ever to show off their very own "Big Brother Legend Jeff Schroeder", with him making more appearances on the live shows than other popular contestants could ever hope to see.
** Rachel in particular has probably the severest case of ExecutiveMeddling designed to help the contestant in the series. She comes back with an unbreakable alliance with Brendon and is also paired up with Jeff and Jordan, who are likewise unbreakable. They are then put against people who barely know each other and have never played; the veterans (Rachel, Brendon, Jeff, Jordan, Daniele) have. The challenges are all something they're familiar with. After her boyfriend was evicted from the house, he somehow wins a popular vote to come back but is voted back out again. Then after things get turned around again and causing Jeff and Daniele to be voted out, then Rachel and Jordan are put on the block, Porsche is forced to open Pandora's Box...and the twist seems tailor-made to benefit Rachel and Jordan. Conveniently, the next veto competition (Read: That Rachel ''needs'' to win) is... a carbon copy of the first competition in the game that Rachel won, with a different prop. The twist manages to save both Rachel and Jordan, then the next head of household challenge is a challenge that Rachel had already won in the past - and just a couple days before, she was talking about how she did so well on it. When she's forced to open Pandora's box, it's not a game-changing power that completely sabotages her game as it did to Porsche...it's a shopping spree. That's some ''[[SarcasmMode amazing]]'' [[SarcasmMode luck]].
** Mike "Boogie" Malin. It's obvious the producers love him, but they like Dr. Will more and the only reason he got on in the first place was because Dr. Will wouldn't come on unless they could ask Mike to come on as well.
** In Season 16 we got Frankie Grande, an Attention Whore that most fans seem to loathe, but is given top billing to boost ratings.
** In Season 18 Nicole Franzel and Corey Brooks who are the most disliked houseguests of the season are given a lot of screentime compared to the more liked houseguests such as Natalie Negrotti, Da'Vonne Rogers, Bridgette Dunning, and Victor Arroyo to name a few.
** In season 19, ''Paul'' turned into this when he returned by [[BlatantLies popular demand]], [[SpotlightStealingSquad took up 90% of the screentime]], [[ExecutiveMeddling got a free pass to week three]], and [[JerkAss was put with the least likable]] and [[TooDumbToLive the hands down stupidest bunch of players ever]]. His popularity took a ''massive'' nosedive without [[MoralityPet Victor Arroyo]] around to help tone down his JerkAss tendencies, or [[EnemyMine more disliked players like Nicole and Corey]] that people rooted ''against''. When Paul returned to perform a musical number in ''Celebrity Big Brother'' many ''Big Brother'' fans voiced their displeasure with his return. They also wanted Rachel Reilly, Jodi Rollins, Jessica Graf, Cody Nickson and Jessie Godderz who had a much shorter role in the musical number to be the only houseguests in that number because they were not happy to see Paul again. Note that all of the previously mentioned people are already Scrappies.
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'' had Christopher Pelant, a genius hacker and serial killer, who spend two seasons as antagonist, being able to never be caught due to dozens and dozens of AssPull escapes coming out of nowhere, such as suddenly [[spoiler: deleting his identity and creating a new one to get the authorities from Egypt to save him, claiming diplomatic immunity]]. Fans hated him, but it took until season 9 for him to finally [[spoiler: die from a fire Booth shot.]]
* Gina from ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' frequently comes in for accusations of this. Despite being a raging asshole to almost every other character, she almost inevitably [[KarmaHoudini gets away with doing awful things scot-free]], while other characters will face much stricter consequences for doing far less. She frequently acts terribly to other characters without any comeuppance, whereas any other character doing something wrong towards ''her'' is often treated as a borderline MoralEventHorizon crossing which must be atoned for in some way, no matter how minor the offence is. She has increasingly become the character who provides the solution to the episode's central problem regardless of how increasingly unlikely, strained or repetitive this may seem, and despite her [[TheDitz ditzy]] CloudCuckoolander personality apparently has more smarts and skills than a squad full of trained police officers. So she doesn't even learn a lesson from her actions except "I'm always right". Things rarely go wrong for her, and when they do the consequences are dealt with incredibly quickly (for example, an 'arc' where she gets hit by a bus in Season Four is over by the end of one episode, apparently giving her healing skills comparable to Wolverine), as if the writers can't bear the possibility that she might have to suffer even some minor inconvenience every once in a while. This repeated accusations from the fanbase, however, may or may not have contributed her character getting written out of the series (aside from one appearance as [[CharacterShilling a celebrity with a cult-like following]]). It perhaps didn't help that a frequent critique during her lengthy absence in Season Five (due to the actress being on maternity leave) was that for all the efforts of the creative team to push her, the show carried on more or less exactly the same without her.
* Hope Logan from ''Series/TheBoldAndTheBeautiful'' certainly fits. The writers obvious love for her has at least one or two scenes per episode where characters talk about her purity and virtue. Hell, she's such a paragon of goodness that after her step-sister's miscarriage she tried to convince Steffy's husband that it was for the best so that they could be together. In Hope's defense she had the guy first before Steffy stole him from her first, and then several times after that. But it's hard to buy a character who we're constantly told to be the epitome of goodness to be so cold. Fans continue to be polarized about her, not that it has stopped her from being shoved in our faces as if they're trying to make us love her... or else.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Riley. Whedon never wanted the Vampire romance in the first place, so when he got the opportunity to give Buffy a human LoveInterest, the writers spent so long making him not-Angel that they forgot to give Riley any actual personality or chemistry with Buffy. Despite that, many characters [[CharacterShilling constantly mention how he is the nicest guy around and how great of a couple he and Buffy make]]. This reaches breaking point in Season 5's "Into The Woods", when Buffy finds out Riley is addicted to [[FantasticDrug letting vampires bite him]], for which he blames Buffy for liking bad boys and thus emasculating him -- even though it actually stemmed from his own issues about not being able to handle dating a girl stronger than him -- and not giving him enough attention, completely forgetting the fact that Buffy was not hanging out with anyone to take care of her sick mother, who has a ''brain tumor''. After all this, the series wants you to take Riley's side and Xander goes on a rant saying that Buffy is screwing up her chance at love and guilt-trips her into trying to take him back. When he comes back in season 6, none of his faults are brought up again and he gets to go away HappilyMarried, this time to a BadassNormal who is, indeed, weaker than him, while even Buffy is now believing she should have been with him. As an ameliorating factor, at one of Buffy's lowest points, he unhesitatingly reveals his faith in her and states that she's probably the most amazing person he knows.

** Phoebe was seen as this in the fifth to seventh seasons. Particularly the character applied NeverMyFault to the Cole situation; she treated him as though he had been responsible for everything that went wrong in their lives, ignoring her own mistakes. She was never called out in the narrative for her faults, thoroughly aggravating fans. This died off slowly, starting with her being punished for abusing her magic by [[BroughtDownToNormal getting de-powered]] and having her SerialRomeo tendencies deconstructed.
** Billie Jenkins in the final season wasn't well liked because she was created especially to give the three lead actresses less to do - resulting in increased screen time for her. Budget cuts in the season led to Leo - who had been there since Season 1 - getting PutOnABus for ten episodes in favor of her. Further exacerbating matters was TheReveal that she was the Ultimate Power - making her stronger than any villain the sisters had to face before.
** As time has gone on, fans have come to see Prue as this (she was popular in the early days of the show). The narrative would frequently put her on the moral high ground, she'd be shown as right for doing things other characters got criticised for, storylines revolved around her and she would inevitably come out on top.
* Gabby Dawson of ''Series/ChicagoFire'' is actually a terrible paramedic riding a wave of Protagonist-Centered Morality. Even if we skip the series' frequent use of Artistic License – Medicine, she still commits gross insubordination repeatedly (that's literally the only offense that can get a fire department employee fired on the spot), performs medical procedures that are outside of her Scope of Practice (bye bye paramedic certification, hello prison), is openly carrying on an inappropriate relationship with her company officer, will casually violate the expressed wishes of a conscious and oriented patient (yeah, they have a legal word for that: kidnapping), on one occasion casually destroyed a social worker's cell phone, the list goes on. It's really no wonder the EMS battalion chief is looking for an excuse to get rid of her, she's literally the worst liability imaginable. And she continues to get away with it for no particular reason except that she's one of the star characters. Nary an episode goes by without other characters talking up how great she is—often for doing something stupid or even illegal. Several fan forums have declared her a Mary Sue, and after a later episode has her complain about being assigned to a training class for a day (which anyone with any level of emergency medical certification is required to do every year in order to maintain their certification, for obvious reasons), practically sleep through the class, and then score 100% on the test, it's easy to see why.
* Irish drama ''Series/TheClinic'' has this with Dr. Dan. He started off as a corrupt third-string cast member, then got found out and left. A year or so later he came back, began going out with the lead character. Then when she died he became the lead. Through all this he never reformed, constantly seemed to be lying for no good reason, trying to scam people, and generally being a total douche and never reforming, even after a bout of life-threatening illness. The character has no depth, they stop him being an outright hero by making him do bad things, stop him from being an outright villain by making him seem joyless. The end result is he's a boring would-be anti-hero who gets all the plot lumped at his feet.
* [[CousinOliver Olivia]] in ''Series/TheCosbyShow''. Lampshaded in the episode "Nightmare on Stigwood Avenue."
* Ever since Erica Messer took over ''Series/CriminalMinds'' in Season 7 many fans feel this way about Jennifer "JJ" Jareau. JJ, before Messer took over, was a likeable "niche" character as the team's media liaison. Despite not being as well trained as her colleagues in their field skills, JJ still showed flashes of these skills from time to time, which became [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Moments Of Awesome]] for the character. In Season 7, JJ becomes a profiler and leaves the media liaison position, [[TookALevelInBadass learning the requisite skills before the season began]]. That storyline wasn't bad in principle, but what ruined it was that JJ never "grew" into the position, becoming "the best" profiler and the team's best fighter overnight. What seals JJ as the Creator's Pet is the fact that not only has she become a MarySue in the eyes of the fans, she's also received the bulk of the focus at the expense of the rest of the team (and the more likeable characters), a situation so bad that she was entirely in the spotlight during the landmark 200th episode with the rest of the team shoved to the sidelines. [[BrokenBase For many in the fandom, there may just be no chance to repair the character for better.]]

* Dr. Daniel Jonas in ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' is the purest example of this trope. In his time in Salem, numerous characters have propped him, telling people he's the best surgeon, boyfriend, lover, etc., etc. In addition, veteran and legacy characters have been thrown under the bus to prop Daniel, including the destruction of longtime supercouple Jack and Jennifer Deveraux. His character was retconned to be the daughter of Maggie Horton in order to make both him and his daughter connected to one of the core families in Salem, and almost every female character "falls in love" with Daniel to the detriment of their prior character development. All of the male characters admire him, and almost all of the characters constantly discuss what a great guy he is even when he is not on that day's episode. The show continues to forcefeed viewers the pairing with Jennifer Deveraux despite major members of the soap opera press declaring the pairing as failed, tired, trite, dull and showing no chemistry.

** Emma was arguably the first, though Craig shared time with her in this. The difference being that while Craig was always angsty and whiny, but the writers gave him a plurality of episodes in seasons 2, 3, and 4. Then there's Emma, who was always angsty and whiny and [[AuthorFilibuster a place to inject the writers' political views]], in addition to being self-righteous and bitchy, and she was [[{{tsundere}} much more tsun than dere]]. Also, her issues tended to be [[WhatAnIdiot things you had to be a moron to do]], like go down on a guy who's already sleeping with numerous girls, leading to the {{fanon}} that she just does it for attention. And she got a plurality of episodes in seasons 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. She's also a black hole who sucks the win out of every character she's around.
** More recently there's been Mia. She's a teen mom, a classic trait for all non-virgin Sues. You're wondering how she can afford to juggle her time between school, a baby, and cheerleading? [[UpToEleven She's also a model.]] She also gets close to J.T., and [[DieForOurShip cements the split between him and Liberty]]. She's from another school, and [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom J.T.'s love for her ultimately gets him killed]]. And from season 6 until she leaves, she has a huge role. To make matters worse, during her final season, she was paired up with the ever-icky Peter (arguably the male Mia) and the duo were portrayed as Degrassi's power couple despite the fact that Peter was a creep who mistreated every women he's ever encountered... yet the writers insisted on focusing way too much screen time on him as if he were a good guy all along.
** Drew Torres. The writers have a tendency to treat him as a GaryStu. He has shown various narcissistic tendencies, which the creators nonchalantly brush off as mild foolishness. He kicked off his run on Degrassi by blackmailing another character by threatening to out him to the entire school, a possibility the character had shown to be quite afraid of, all because he wanted to be the school quarterback. Later on, he dated Zoe and remarkably forgot that Zoe was three years younger than him and was not old enough to give him her consent for sex. This did not stop him. He later acted surprised when she told him she was a virgin, even though he himself did not lose his virginity until he was seventeen. To add on to the horrible things Drew has done, he has cheated on every girlfriend he has had, the first being Alli, and in a later block, begins to date the person he cheated with. He later abandons this girl the one time she truly needs him, and gets another girlfriend. He eventually cheats on this girlfriend with his past girlfriend, then breaks up with the earlier girlfriend to get together with the past girlfriend, only to cheat on her with said girlfriend. So basically, he can't hold a good relationship if his life depended on it. And despite having emotionally damaged four girls in his short time on Degrassi, Drew somehow manages to become the leading male of season 13.
*** Adding on to how the creators spoil him, it has seemed that the writers have a habit of putting characters in horrible situations and/or ruining other characters in order to make him come off as a good person. This includes his entire storyline in the Season 11 block "Now or Never", in which he saves Bianca from getting raped and suffers the consequences. This takes place coincidentally after he had insulted Bianca several times, saying that "every horrible thing everyone's said about you is right", to which she always took it well without even thinking negatively of him. The night were he saves Alli from getting sexually assaulted by Owen takes place only hours after he cheated on her in the very same spot. After Zoe gets raped by Luke (a character who actually had future potential), the writers have him blame himself, even though he has no reason to... other than the fact that this takes place right after he took advantage of her himself and the writers needed him to look better by comparison. But then, of course, there's the ones that don't even make sense, like having Eli cheat on Clare just so that Drew will look like a better option for her (it was previously shown in several seasons that Eli would risk everything for Clare, and even went two years without sex just for her, so the fact that his sexual drive couldn't wait three months is just ridiculous. This is only made even more ridiculous when considering the fact that Clare and Drew haven't even shared a line together before season 12C, and their entire relationship seems far too rushed to be taken seriously).
*** The fact that [[KarmaHoudini he's never punished for anything he's done]] also doesn't let him sit right with fans. The night he is caught with Alli, his mother places all the blame on her without even questioning his antics. To add insult to injury, Alli, Bianca, and all the girls who acted "inappropriately" that night had to go to a self-respect seminar, while he and all the other male students where let off the hook. After he cheated on Katie with Bianca (and then Bianca with Katie), Katie initially took all her frustrations out on Bianca, however when she finally got revenge on Drew by exposing him in front of Bianca, she forgave him an episode or two later. After the incident with Zoe, he is told off by his mother, but is not punished that severely by her, and is not punished by the school at all.
** Then there's Mr./Principal Simpson. As a teacher, fans of the show often poked fun for his treatment of his students. He wasn't "too strict", or "too kind"... well he was, but at random and completely unexpected times. He thought Principal Raditch was being too strict when he gave Hazel, Toby, and Jimmy Saturday detention, even though Toby and Jimmy hacked into the school computer system to change Jimmy's grades. A few seasons later, he's so strict that he continuously punishes Darcy for things she has no control over. Now imagine that as a principal. Once he is promoted, he starts off letting his students get away with everything, but when things reach a boiling point, he becomes far more strict. Eventually, he cools down, but becomes both too liberal and too strict just like before. He doesn't punish Eli for taking drugs and streaking through the Degrassi hallways, and doesn't do a thing when Zoe cyber bullies Maya (even though this is ground for expulsion), however, he punishes MAYA when she writes a mean song about Zoe. He lets Winston get away with protesting the school dance in an attempt to harass Drew, however, he punishes Imogen for forgetting to wear a bra to school. This goes without mentioning his apparent sexist treatment of the students. He forces the female students who acted "inappropriately" at the school's Vegas dance to attend a self-esteem workshop, whilst failing to hold the males students to the same standard. This comes as extremely odd considering the fact that his own step-daughter is one of the biggest feminists this show has ever had. And for this treatment, he has somehow become the only character to appear in every season of the Degrassi franchise.
** Clare Edwards. She is beloved by the writers and has an unsettling amount of CanonSue tendencies. Her ridiculous amount of screentime certainly hasn't endeared her to her detractors. Which makes sense since she's essentially Emma 2.0 with Maya quickly picking up the mantle as Emma 3.0.
* Susan Mayer of ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' has been confirmed by creator Marc Cherri to be his favourite, a sentiment not shared by the audience, who found Susan's ContrivedClumsiness, constant meddling, very questionable parenting of Julie (who was well-liked), always being in every major plotline and constantly getting forgiven for doing awful things, like burning Edie's house down in Season One.
* Hannah [=McKay=] from ''Series/{{Dexter}}''. The writers just adored her and were really clearly trying their absolute damnedest to make the fans like her, yet fans on the whole found her [[FlatCharacter flat, boring and all around unlikable]]. Dexter [[StrangledByTheRedString rapidly falls in love with her]] and can't bring himself to kill her despite her more than fitting [[SerialKillerKiller his code]]; the fact that she came after the better-received [[NiceGirl Rita]] and [[BrokenBird Lumen]] marked her as a ReplacementScrappy on top of all that. There are frequent occurrences of other characters [[CharacterShilling praising her and gushing about how great a fit she and Dexter are]]. Her SpotlightStealingSquad got so bad that a considerable amount of the story in Season 8 revolved around people trying to catch her. In other words: in the final season of a drama about a serial killer, a huge chunk of the plot is about ''people trying to catch his girlfriend''. Scott Buck even went so far to state he wished he could do a SpinOff based on the character (which never came into fruition, to the relief of Hannah's hatedom).

* Megan from ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' was a massive Jerkass who made her brothers miserable for no reason yet got away with everything and infuriated the fandom to the point they legitimately wanted her killed off. For some reason, showrunner Dan Schneider was completely unaware of this.

* While there's a ''lot'' of argument in ''Series/DoctorWho'' about this, particularly pertaining to companions, in the revival series it's generally agreed that there are two particular examples, who were the pets of their respective show-runners: Rose Tyler and Clara Oswald.
** Rose was the first Revival series companion, and was frequently treated as the perfect companion personality-wise despite possessing numerous character flaws that tended to be downplayed or overlooked. She was often discussed as if she was the only person willing to stand up to the Doctor despite the fact that her relationship with him had her as much more of a yes-woman than successors Martha and Donna (neither of whom was afraid to challenge him and call out his displays of arrogance), her supposed kindness and compassion were often flagged as her central character traits despite a marked tendency to act selfishly and disregard the feelings of the people around her, especially her boyfriend Mickey (whom she essentially threw over for the Doctor at the first opportunity), and her relationship with the Doctor devolved into a RomanticPlotTumour in Series 2 and a cause for major {{Wangst}} in Series' 3 and 4. Despite all this, the dialogue and narrative practically raised her to sainthood, the creators tended to heavily emphasise her superiority to classic series companions, and she was even given a half-human version of the 10th Doctor to love and grow old with. It even became this InUniverse, with Martha walking out after realising that she couldn't compete with Rose's memory following a season of being overshadowed by someone who wasn't even there.
** Clara, meanwhile, mainly suffered from being a walking plot-device, 'the Impossible Girl', and more of a mystery for the Doctor to solve than a companion. Additionally, beneath her bubbly exterior, it quickly became apparent that she was a ControlFreak and came across as a BitchInSheepsClothing at times - as she later put it, when asked who she was under a 'truth-field', "bubbly personality masking bossy ControlFreak!". The romantic arc with the Doctor, which casually shoved aside his relationship with River, and her steady development into someone very like the Doctor, did not help matters. Later revelations that she'd been picked by [[spoiler: Missy]] precisely because of the less appealing aspects of her personality, putting together "the ControlFreak and the man who must not be controlled", her attempts to be like the Doctor led to her being HoistByHisOwnPetard, and the fact that it was made extremely clear InUniverse that she and the Doctor brought out the worst in each other [[AuthorsSavingThrow were mitigating factors,]] but even still, many considered her to be insufferable.

* From ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'', Sophie was originally intended to stick around for a few episodes as a more or less one-off character; however, her [[TheDitz airheaded]] CloudCuckoolander personality made her well-liked by viewers, so she eventually became a series mainstay. But {{Flanderization}} set in fast, so that by the start of season 3, her likeable traits were all but gone, transforming her character into little more than a [[NoIndoorVoice loudmouthed]], [[AnythingThatMoves sex-crazed]] {{Jerkass}}. Yet as viewer opinion of her plummeted, the show's focus on her soared, to the point that the plotlines of some episodes and even the story arcs behind entire seasons became focused around her, and viewers cringed with anticipation of the [[OnceAnEpisode inevitable]] "[[CatchPhrase Hey everybody!]]" "[[StudioAudience WooOOOooo!]]" that marked her appearance in each episode. The show's declining ratings can be pinpointed to the moment Sophie [[SpotlightStealingSquad hijacked the show]], and they didn't have far to slip before the show was ultimately canned in 2017.

* ''Series/GossipGirl'': Dan Humphrey is the ultimate example. He did have a fanbase but the majority of the fans hated him. Showrunner Josh Safran openly admitted that he loved Dan and saw himself in that character and that he wanted him to be popular (even going as far as saying that Dan was "the soul of the show"). This was attempted by shoehorning him into a lot of storylines, breaking up the FanPreferredCouple for the sole purpose of hooking the female party up with Dan ([[WordOfGod which Safran admitted to]]) and [[spoiler:making Dan Gossip Girl... and have everybody just forgive him for all the hurtful, meanspirited things he/Gossip Girl had done over the years.]]

** Charlie Bradbury. While fan reaction is [[BaseBreakingCharacter very mixed]], she definitely qualifies by her second appearance. If being an over-the-top {{adorkable}} genius hacker (that even BigBad Dick Roman [[CharacterShilling thinks is amazing and special]]) who just happens to be a lesbian wasn't enough, she returns in a later episode, where she's introduced beating a LARP-knight in a swordfight and gets talked up by more and more characters. And in her next episode, she suddenly has ImprobableAimingSkills, a BelatedBackstory, and is an AscendedFangirl. Additionally, she's an AuthorAvatar for [[missyjack.livejournal.com/954514.html writer Robbie Thompson]]. It also doesn't help that she ended up being a rather unsubtle mouthpiece for the writers' political views. [[spoiler: That being said, the fandom was able to warm up to her well enough before she got StuffedInTheFridge, which caused '''loads''' of backlash from both fans and even the actors on the show.]]

* The Filipino Christian drama ''May Bukas Pa'' (There's Still A Tomorrow) had the rare case of the main character being the Creator's Pet. Santino is a good kid with healing powers and IncorruptiblePurePureness who changes the lives of everyone around him. But later story arcs showed him getting involved in increasingly improbable situations. He averted a civil war by getting himself shot (Don't ask how how that happened), saved the town from the 10 plagues of Egypt, gotten kidnapped by Communist rebels and testified in a Congressional hearing involving corruption in government. When he dies, all the people who met him (a veritable AllStarCast) mourn him but he comes BackFromTheDead because the Virgin Mary (played by the show's producer!!!) said it wasn't his time yet. And at six years old, he's racked up a rogues gallery with a size that rivals Franchise/{{Batman}}, one of whom is the town mayor [[spoiler:who is also his father]]. And everyone there always asks, [[DrinkingGame "Where is Santino?"]]

* Gina from ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' frequently comes in for accusations of this. Despite being a raging asshole to almost every other character, she almost inevitably [[KarmaHoudini gets away with doing awful things scot-free]], while other characters will face much stricter consequences for doing far less. She frequently acts terribly to other characters without any comeuppance, whereas any other character doing something wrong towards ''her'' is often treated as a borderline MoralEventHorizon crossing which must be atoned for in some way, no matter how minor the offence is. She has increasingly become the character who provides the solution to the episode's central problem regardless of how increasingly unlikely, strained or repetitive this may seem, and despite her [[TheDitz ditzy]] CloudCuckoolander personality apparently has more smarts and skills than a squad full of trained police officers. So she doesn't even learn a lesson from her actions except "I'm always right". Things rarely go wrong for her, and when they do the consequences are dealt with incredibly quickly (for example, an 'arc' where she gets hit by a bus in Season Four is over by the end of one episode, apparently giving her healing skills comparable to Wolverine), as if the writers can't bear the possibility that she might have to suffer even some minor inconvenience every once in a while. This repeated accusations from the fanbase, however, may or may not have contributed her character getting written out of the series (aside from one appearance as [[CharacterShilling a celebrity with a cult-like following]]).

** Rose was the first Revival series companion, and despite the fact that her relationship with the Doctor had her as much more of a yes-woman than successors Martha and Donna (neither of whom was afraid to challenge him and call out his displays of arrogance), her treatment of her boyfriend Mickey (essentially throwing him over for the Doctor at the first opportunity), and her relationship with the Doctor devolved into a RomanticPlotTumour in Series 2 and a cause for major {{Wangst}} in Series' 3 and 4, where she was practically raised to sainthood, and got given a half-human version of the 10th Doctor to love and grow old with. It even became this InUniverse, with Martha walking out after realising that she couldn't compete with Rose's memory.
** Clara, meanwhile, mainly suffered from the walking plot-device, 'the Impossible Girl', and more of a mystery for the Doctor to solve than a companion. Additionally, beneath her bubbly exterior, it quickly became apparent that she was a ControlFreak and came across as a BitchInSheepsClothing at times - as she later put it, when asked who she was under a 'truth-field', "bubbly personality masking bossy ControlFreak!". The romantic arc with the Doctor, which casually shoved aside his relationship with River, and her steady development into someone very like the Doctor, did not help matters. Later revelations that she'd been picked by [[spoiler: Missy]] precisely because of the less appealing aspects of her personality, putting together "the ControlFreak and the man who must not be controlled", her attempts to be like the Doctor led to her being HoistByHisOwnPetard, and the fact that it was made extremely clear InUniverse that she and the Doctor brought out the worst in each other [[AuthorsSavingThrow were mitigating factors,]] but even still, many considered her to be insufferable.

** Lana was kept on long past her usefulness as obligatory love interest from the early seasons, to the point that[[Website/TelevisionWithoutPity some people]] theorized that she was the biggest reason the ratings were dropping. Nonetheless the writers seemed invested in keeping Kristen Kreuk around. The writers' persistence could be chalked up to the fact that Lana is traditionally the girl in Clark's past... if ''Smallville'' hadn't made far bigger breaks with tradition, particularly by introducing Lois Lane. Apparently it came out that Gough and Millar actually did the casting for Lana ''before they did the casting for Clark.''

** Lana was kept on ''waaaaay'' past her usefulness as obligatory love interest from the early seasons. It's worth mentioning, though, that most of the main cast members were heavily retooled as the show's focus shifted to Metropolis: Chloe became the Oracle, for instance. However, no amount of retooling could save this ex-cheerleader/professional artist/astronomer/Wiccan/business magnate/polymath/commando in the public eye and [[Website/TelevisionWithoutPity some people]] marked her as the biggest reason the ratings were dropping. Nonetheless the writers seemed invested in keeping Kristen Kreuk around, inserting her into every storyline they could, if only so she could keep pulling in the teenage girl demographic (even if much of that demographic wanted to punch her in the throat). The writers' persistence could be chalked up to the fact that Lana is traditionally the girl in Clark's past... if ''Smallville'' hadn't made far bigger breaks with tradition, particularly by introducing Lois Lane.
** What arguably made it even more annoying for fans was that the show constantly had other characters [[CharacterShilling rave about how awesome Lana supposedly was.]] There were plenty of times when Lana did wrong to Chloe, only for us to see Chloe blindly ''praise'' Lana later in the same episode, and times she toyed with Clark's emotions only for him to willingly continue to be her doormat. Even Tess Mercer, a tough-as-nails corporate executive and occasional DarkActionGirl who is usually the SnarkKnight, practically declared her undying love and hero-worship of Lana in Season 8. She even came back for three episodes in Season 8 with faux-Navy SEAL training and superpowers.
** It really says something that in the DVD commentary, co-creators Gough and Millar actually declared at one point that "she is the true magic of the show."
** Apparently it came out that Gough and Millar actually did the casting for Lana ''before they did the casting for Clark.''

* Kate from Series/RobinHood. She was introduced in Series 3 as a replacement for the well-liked Maid Marian. She quickly establishes herself as a member of the Merry Men, Robin's [[ReplacementLoveInterest new girlfriend]] and is constantly fawned over by the characters, [[CharacterShilling being called]] "beautiful", "brave", "a good fighter", "compassionate" "a treasure" etc. and is generally adored by all. Unfortunately for the writers, most viewers didn't agree, with Kate actually gaining a certain amount of notoriety as the biggest {{Scrappy}} on the show. Besides being an [[ReplacementScrappy obvious replacement]] for Marian, it doesn't help that Kate [[InformedAbility never really lives]] [[InformedAttribute up to her]] CharacterShilling, instead being a FauxActionGirl who [[DamselScrappy constantly needs rescuing]], often makes [[TooDumbToLive stupid decisions]] and generally comes across as [[CuteButCacophonic shrill]] and [[TeamPrimaDonna obnoxious]].

* Rachel in particular has probably the severest case of ExecutiveMeddling designed to help the contestant in the series. She comes back with an unbreakable alliance with Brendon and is also paired up with Jeff and Jordan, who are likewise unbreakable. They are then put against people who barely know each other and have never played; the veterans (Rachel, Brendon, Jeff, Jordan, Daniele) have. The challenges are all something they're familiar with. After her boyfriend was evicted from the house, he somehow wins a popular vote to come back but is voted back out again. Then after things get turned around again and causing Jeff and Daniele to be voted out, then Rachel and Jordan are put on the block, Porsche is forced to open Pandora's Box...and the twist seems tailor-made to benefit Rachel and Jordan. Conveniently, the next veto competition (Read: That Rachel ''needs'' to win) is... a carbon copy of the first competition in the game that Rachel won, with a different prop. The twist manages to save both Rachel and Jordan, then the next head of household challenge is a challenge that Rachel had already won in the past - and just a couple days before, she was talking about how she did so well on it. When she's forced to open Pandora's box, it's not a game-changing power that completely sabotages her game as it did to Porsche...it's a shopping spree. That's some ''[[SarcasmMode amazing]]'' [[SarcasmMode luck]].

** In season 19, ''Paul'' turned into this when he returned by [[BlatantLies popular demand]], [[SpotlightStealingSquad took up 90% of the screentime]], [[ExecutiveMeddling got a free pass to week three]], and [[JerkAss was put with the least likable]] and [[TooDumbToLive the hands down stupidest bunch of players ever]]. His popularity took a ''massive'' nosedive without [[MoralityPet Victor Arroyo]] around to help tone down his JerkAss tendencies, or [[EnemyMine more disliked players like Nicole and Corey]] that people rooted ''against''. When Paul returned to perform a musical number in ''Celebrity Big Brother'' many ''Big Brother'' fans voiced their displeasure with his return. They also wanted Rachel Reilly, Jodi Rollins, Jessica Graf, Cody Nickson and Jessie Godderz who had a much shorter role in the musical number to be the only houseguests in that number because they were not happy to see Paul again.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Riley. Whedon never wanted the Vampire romance in the first place, so when he got the opportunity to give Buffy a human LoveInterest, the writers spent so long making him not-Angel that they forego giving Riley any actual personality or chemistry with Buffy. Despite that, every character [[CharacterShilling constantly mention how he is the nicest guy around and how great of a couple he and Buffy make]]. This reaches breaking point in Season 5's "Into The Woods", when Buffy finds out Riley is addicted to [[FantasticDrug let vampires bite him]], and then blames Buffy for liking bad boys -- because of her previous relationship with Angel --, emasculating him -- which came from his own issues in not being able to handle dating a girl stronger than him -- and not giving him enough attention, completely forgoing the fact that Buffy was not hanging out with anyone to take care of her sick mother, who has a ''brain tumor''. After all this, the series wants you to take Riley's side and Xander goes on a rant saying that Buffy is screwing up her chance at love and guilt trips her into trying to take him back. When he comes back in season 6, none of his faults are brought up again and he gets to go away HappilyMarried, this time to a BadassNormal who is, indeed, weaker than him, while even Buffy is now believing she should have been with him - though it does have the ameliorating factor that, at one of her lowest points, he unhesitatingly reveals his faith in her and states that she's probably the most amazing person he knows.

** Phoebe was seen as this in the fifth-seventh seasons. Particularly the character applied NeverMyFault to the Cole situation; she treated him as though he had been responsible for everything that went wrong in their lives, ignoring her own mistakes. She was never called out in the narrative for her faults, thoroughly aggravating fans. This died off slowly, starting with her being punished for abusing her magic by [[BroughtDownToNormal getting de-powered]] and having her SerialRomeo tendencies deconstructed.
** Billie Jenkins in the final season wasn't well liked because she was created especially to give the three lead actresses less to do - resulting in increased screen time. Budget cuts in the season led to Leo - who had been there since Season 1 - getting PutOnABus for ten episodes in favor of her. Further exacerbating matters was TheReveal that she was the Ultimate Power - making her stronger than any villain the sisters had to face before.
** As time has gone on, fans have come to see Prue as such (she was popular in the early days of the show). The narrative would frequently put her on the moral high ground, she'd be shown as right for doing things other characters got criticised for, storylines revolved around her and she would inevitably come out on top.

* Hannah [=McKay=] from ''Series/{{Dexter}}''. The writers just adored her and were really clearly trying their absolute damnedest to make the fans like her, yet fans on the whole found her [[FlatCharacter flat, boring and all around unlikable]]. Dexter [[StrangledByTheRedString rapidly falls in love with her]] and can't bring himself to kill her despite her more than fitting [[SerialKillerKiller his code]]; the fact that she came after the more well-received [[NiceGirl Rita]] and [[BrokenBird Lumen]] marked her as a ReplacementScrappy on top of all that. There are frequent occurrences of other characters [[CharacterShilling praising her and gushing about how great a fit she and Dexter are]]. Her SpotlightStealingSquad got so bad that a considerable amount of the story in Season 8 revolved around people trying to catch her. In other words: in the final season of a drama about a serial killer, a huge chunk of the plot is about ''people trying to catch his girlfriend''. Scott Buck even went so far to state he wished he could do a SpinOff based on the character (which never came into fruition, to the relief of Hannah's hatedom).

** And of course, there's Rumplestiltskin / Mr. Gold, who some fans feel has long worn out his welcome by the fifth season and should be considered irredeemable at this point, but who not only continues to stay on the show and in important roles, but more often than not seems to [[KarmaHoudini get off scot-free for all of his evil deeds, if not flat-out rewarded with even MORE power.]] [[spoiler: Whether or not he redeemed himself by the series finale is a major point of contention.]]

* Nellie in season 8 of ''Series/TheOfficeUS''. While she had definite signs of TheScrappy initially (hated by fans), the writers have been publicly praising Creator/CatherineTate (adored by creators), brought back and put in as the boss and attempted to be given a sympathetic backstory (put into large scenes), and finally [[CharacterShilling talked up by other characters]] (with Jim and Pam taking to defend her at one point).

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Riley. Whedon never wanted the Vampire romance in the first place, so when he got the opportunity to give Buffy a human LoveInterest, the writers spent so long making him not-Angel that they forego giving Riley any actual personality or chemistry with Buffy. Despite that, every character [[CharacterShilling constantly mention how he is the nicest guy around and how great of a couple he and Buffy make]]. This reaches breaking point in Season 5's "Into The Woods", when Buffy finds out Riley is addicted to [[FantasticDrug let vampires bite him]], and then blames Buffy for liking bad boys -- because of her previous relationship with Angel --, emasculating him -- which came from his own issues in not being able to handle dating a girl stronger than him -- and not giving him enough attention, completely forgoing the fact that Buffy was not hanging out with anyone to take care of her sick mother, who has a ''brain tumor''. After all this, the series wants you to take Riley's side and Xander goes on a rant saying that Buffy is screwing up her chance at love and guilt trips her into trying to take him back. When he comes back in season 6, none of his faults are brought up again and he gets to go away HappilyMarried, this time to a BadassNormal who is, indeed, weaker than him, while even Buffy is now believing she should have been with him.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Riley. Wheadon never wanted the Vampire romance in the first place, so when he got the opportunity to give Buffy a human LoveInterest, the writers spent so long making him not-Angel that they forego giving Riley any actual personality or chemistry with Buffy. Despite that, every character [[CharacterShilling constantly mention how he is the nicest guy around and how great of a couple he and Buffy make]]. This reaches breaking point in Season 5's "Into The Woods", when Buffy finds out Riley is addicted to [[FantasticDrug let vampires bite him]], and then blames Buffy for liking bad boys -- because of her previous relationship with Angel --, emasculating him -- which came from his own issues in not being able to handle dating a girl stronger than him -- and not giving him enough attention, completely forgoing the fact that Buffy was not hanging out with anyone to take care of her sick mother, who has a ''brain tumor''. After all this, the series wants you to take Riley's side and Xander goes on a rant saying that Buffy is screwing up her chance at love and guilt trips her into trying to take him back. When he comes back in season 6, none of his faults are brought up again and he gets to go away HappilyMarried, this time to a BadassNormal who is, indeed, weaker than him, while even Buffy is now believing she should have been with him.

* Stacey Slater from ''Series/EastEnders''. Seriously, she is Walford's answer to Lana Lang. She even got her own PsychoLesbian [[StalkerWithACrush stalker]] for a while who was actually much hotter than Stacey but the plotline [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot ended undramatically]]. First introduced as an expy for Kat Slater, Stacey quickly became the creator's favourite character. Despite being a shrill, perpetually {{Wangst}}y {{Jerkass}} who didn't know how to smile and just SHOUTED ALL THE TIME, everyone in Walford adored her and usually ended up sleeping with her. She was such a spoilt brat that she turned up to her boyfriend's work party which was crucial to his career and because she was annoyed over not being invited, got completely [[LadyDrunk drunk]] and made a complete fool of herself before being forced to leave. Outside, Bradley laid a savage ReasonYouSuckSpeech on her. In revenge, Stacey [[MoralEventHorizon then seduced Bradley's dad]]. Even after their affair was exposed on Christmas Day and everyone's lives were ruined, Bradley still got back together with her and after she killed Archie Mitchell for raping her (okay, that she can be applauded for), Bradley took the rap and a nose dive off the Queen Vic to his death. When Stacey nearly did the same thing, you could practically hear the audience chanting "Do it you bitch!" But she didn't. Even after everything she'd done, the writers still loved her too much to either kill her off or send her to prison which in Walford, left only one way of leaving open to her: going to Spain. And there she remains but the writers still sent her off with the touching jingle that they only play at the end of a really sad or moving episode.

** Talisa was seen as this, with her being introduced essentially mouthing off to her king, and it being shown as a positive character trait. Fans of the books disliked her for being a replacement for Jeyne Westerling and AdaptationExpansion (her and Robb's marriage happened off screen in the books) drastically changing Robb's plot. In the books he marries her after a one night stand to preserve her honor, [[HonorBeforeReason knowingly breaking a marriage promise to a potential ally]] (said one night stand happened when he heard his brothers may have just been murdered too). In the show Talisa and Robb fall madly in love and he breaks the marriage promise to marry her because. [[spoiler: Then at the end of Season 3 when she's given a shocking DeathByAdaptation, her many haters [[AlasPoorScrappy were horrified]].]]

** Carly Corinthos Jax can meet this defintion, as she came into Port Charles with the mission or taking revenge on her mother for giving her up for adoption. She slept with her mom's husband (no, he wasn't her biological father, don't worry), and getting pregnant with a child whose paternity she didn't know. She is now one of the central characters of the show, and [[KarmaHoudini rarely pays for anything she has done]]; even when she was suspected of hitting and killing a child, the child's father ranted about her, two other characters defended her. She also has a tendency to cling to her [[ItsAllAboutMe her best friend and ex husband]] despite being married, and tends to [[NeverMyFault blame everyone else for her mistakes]]

* In the early seasons of ''Series/HolbyCity'' the character of Victoria Merrick was often seen by fans as the creator's pet. She was imcompetent in the extreme, supercilious to the nurses, became addicted to drugs and generally whined every single week about how hard it was to be a junior doctor, yet still they kept her on. Even the perfectionist Anton Meyer kept forgiving her. Yet another character, who played a quite competent young female cardiologist was immediately 'sacked' by boss Anton Meyer for a much lesser crime. Fans often wondered if Merrick was his love child and this was {{lampshaded}} in the first episode of the third series when Merrick was sent off to another department, and one character said "There goes the theory that she's Meyer's secret love child." Ironically, the actress who played her, Lisa Faulkner, went on to star in ''Series/{{Spooks}}'' as an equally incompetent young spy, but in her (and the ''series''') second episode was dipped head first into a vat of hot oil and shot. ''Holby City'' fans, who had often written stories killing off Victoria Merrick in increasingly bizarre ways, cheered (and wished they'd thought of it).

* Det. Olivia Benson from ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU''. Her SoapboxSadie attitudes have had a long history of rubbing viewers the wrong way, yet Dick Wolf seems to have no problem making her the series' [[AuthorTract primary sociopolitical mouthpiece]] (as opposed to Det. John Munch, whose CloudCuckoolander rants usually designate him to ButtMonkey status). Not only did she [[SpotlightStealingSquad gradually replace her more well-received partner Elliot Stabler as the face of the series in both advertisements and the show itself]], but with Stabler [[PutOnABus now out of the picture]] fans have all the more motivation to throw ire and bile her way.

* The Filipino Christian drama ''May Bukas Pa'' (There's Still A Tomorrow) had the rare case of the main character being the Creator's Pet. Santino is a good kid with healing powers and IncorruptiblePurePureness who changes the lives of everyone around him. But later story arcs showed him getting involved in increasingly improbable situations. He averted a civil war by getting himself shot (Don't ask how how that happened), saved the town from the 10 plagues of Egypt, gotten kidnapped by Communist rebels and testified in a Congressional hearing involving corruption in government. When he dies, all the people who met him (a veritable AllStarCast) mourn him but he comes BackFromTheDead because the Virgin Mary (played by the show's producer!!!) said it wasn't his time yet. And at six years old, he's racked up a rogues gallery with a size that rivals Franchise/{{Batman}}, one of whom is the town mayor [[spoiler:who is also his father]]. And everyone there always asks [[DrinkingGame "Where is Santino?"]]

** Summer Hoyland. That's TheOtherDarrin Summer Hoyland, who's so different from the [[SameCharacterButDifferent charming and sweet-natured original]] it's hard to believe they were meant to be the same character. She dumps her likeable boyfriend for spurious reasons (the fact that he was competing with Andrew for her), her next boyfriend turns out to be gay prompting her to make lots of big speeches about how there's nothing wrong with that without noticing she's causing most of the hostility towards him, then she sleeps with her sometimes-best friend's boyfriend who she's suddenly decided is the love of her life. (It doesn't last, despite the show trying to turn them into the OfficialCouple when they're actually something of a CrackPairing.) And she still has the nerve to be self-righteous about everything and everyone. She gets the school radio station closed down by wrongly accusing the local council of being corrupt without any evidence, for which she receives no punishment. She attempts to cheat at an exam (albeit in a desperate, poorly planned fashion that wouldn't have been very effective even if the exam hadn't been postpined due to her teacher collapsing) and instead of redoing Year 12 after being caught out, she convinces the local newspaper editor (her boyfriend's dad) to give her a job. As a result, at the age of eighteen, she's a full-time professional journalist despite having no qualification and next editor Susan (basically an older version of Summer) effectively makes her her right hand woman. Even after she sleeps with the deputy editor and tries to run off to his next paper with him, Susan still wants her to stay on but instead she leaves to do charity work. In Paris.

** Lana was kept on ''waaaaay'' past her usefulness as obligatory love interest from the early seasons. It's worth mentioning, though, that most of the main cast members were heavily retooled as the show's focus shifted to Metropolis: Chloe became the Oracle, for instance. However, no amount of retooling could save this ex-cheerleader/professional artist/astronomer/wicca/business magnate/polymath/commando in the public eye and [[Website/TelevisionWithoutPity some people]] marked her as the biggest reason the ratings were dropping. Nonetheless the writers seemed invested in keeping Kristen Kreuk around, inserting her into every storyline they could, if only so she could keep pulling in the teenage girl demographic (even if much of that demographic wanted to punch her in the throat). The writers' persistence could be chalked up to the fact that Lana is traditionally the girl in Clark's past... if ''Smallville'' hadn't made far bigger breaks with tradition, particularly by introducing Lois Lane.

* Irish drama ''The Clinic'' has this with Dr. Dan. He started off as a corrupt third-string cast member, then got found out and left. A year or so later he came back, began going out with the lead character. Then when she died he became the lead. Through all this he never reformed, constantly seemed to be lying for no good reason, trying to scam people, and generally being a total douche and never reforming, even after a bout of life-threatening illness. The character has no depth, they stop him being an outright hero by making him do bad things, stop him from being an outright villain by making him seem joyless. The end result is he's a boring would-be anti-hero who gets all the plot lumped at his feet.

* Inverted on ''Series/PeepShow''. The fanbase loves Matt King's character Super Hans and actually want more of him but the writers are resistant to do so. It helps that they have a high degree of awareness that Super Hans is similar to Jeremy (he's basically Jez with no positive traits) and are wary of him becoming unfunny too quickly. His appearances became more frequent in later series, though.

* Gina from ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' frequently comes in for accusations of this. Despite being a raging asshole to almost every other character, she almost inevitably [[KarmaHoudini gets away with doing awful things scot-free]], while other characters will face much stricter consequences for doing far less. She frequently acts terribly to other characters without any comeuppance, whereas any other character doing something wrong towards ''her'' is often treated as a borderline MoralEventHorizon crossing which must be atoned for in some way, no matter how minor the offence is. She has increasingly become the character who provides the solution to the episode's central problem regardless of how increasingly unlikely, strained or repetitive this may seem, and despite her [[TheDitz ditzy]] CloudCuckoolander personality apparently has more smarts and skills than a squad full of trained police officers. So she doesn't even learn a lesson from her actions except "I'm always right". Things rarely go wrong for her, and when they do the consequences are dealt with incredibly quickly (for example, an 'arc' where she gets hit by a bus in Season Four is over by the end of one episode, apparently giving her healing skills comparable to Wolverine), as if the writers can't bear the possibility that she might have to suffer even some minor inconvenience every once in a while. This repeated accusations from the fanbase, however, may or may not have contributed her character getting written out of the series (aside from one appearance as [[CharacterShilling a celebrity with a cult-like following]].

* Gina from ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' frequently comes in for accusations of this. Despite being a raging asshole to almost every other character, she almost inevitably [[KarmaHoudini gets away with doing awful things scot-free]], while other characters will face much stricter consequences for doing far less. She frequently acts terribly to other characters without any comeuppance, whereas any other character doing something wrong towards ''her'' is often treated as a borderline MoralEventHorizon crossing which must be atoned for in some way, no matter how minor the offence is. She has increasingly become the character who provides the solution to the episode's central problem regardless of how increasingly unlikely, strained or repetitive this may seem, and despite her [[TheDitz ditzy]] CloudCuckoolander personality apparently has more smarts and skills than a squad full of trained police officers. So she doesn't even learn a lesson from her actions except "I'm always right". Things rarely go wrong for her, and when they do the consequences are dealt with incredibly quickly (for example, an 'arc' where she gets hit by a bus in Season Four is over by the end of one episode, apparently giving her healing skills comparable to Wolverine), as if the writers can't bear the possibility that she might have to suffer even some minor inconvenience every once in a while. This repeated accusations from fanbase, however, may or may not have contributed her character getting written out of the series.

** Ramsay Bolton quickly became this, as well thanks to AdaptationExpansion. His extended torture of Theon happened offscreen in the books but was shown in the series to give Alfie Allen something to do. Soon after he started to dominate plotlines and the universe seemed to conspire to make him come out on top, despite his StupidEvil tendencies. [[spoiler: He ended up derailing Stannis's entire war effort with one sneaky midnight raid on his camp with just twenty people, and proceeded to beat the rest in a CurbStompBattle. And then next season he easily kills his father to become Lord of Winterfell]].

** Phoebe, particularly since Season 5, even the fact she prevented Cole separating from the Source is never brought up. When you consider the fact Alyssa Milano had become a producer on the show at Season 5's beginning, it could be said Phoebe was made into an AuthorAvatar of Alyssa.
** Billie from the final season. She was loathed for many reasons - creating useless subplots that were often just [[RecycledScript rehashes of previous storylines]], distracting focus from the titular Charmed ones, threatening the world with a spin-off, getting a character that had been around since season one (and Piper's husband) [[PutOnABus encased in a block of ice]] for over half the season due to budget cuts, and breaking canon by having the ability to [[RealityWarper alter reality]] with her mind making her and her lisping sister the Ultimate Power - but no reason garnered as much hatred as Kaley Cuoco's [[DullSurprise inability to express any semblance of humanity]] that resulted in her character being alienating and just downright unlikable. Being Brad Kern's pet means you can get away with anything. Only when the Charmed Ones are [[FridgeBrilliance not paying attention]].

* Michelle Tanner in ''Series/FullHouse'', especially in the later seasons of the show. Because of her popularity, the writers gave more episodes focusing on Michelle and even brought it to the point where she became the main character. As a result, Michelle got away with doing almost everything and is always treated as being right. Any incident with her being scolded is treated as undeserving and wrong on her part. To this day, she is blamed for turning the show into a kiddie show and is considered an unpopular character of the show.