History CreatorsPet / LiveActionTv

* Reva in ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'', to the point that there were talks of giving her a SpinOff before the show even concluded. Not only was she head of the SpotlightStealingSquad alongside Leia and Tala, but the writers deflected any criticism of her character with accusations of racism while giving Vader BondVillainStupidity to ensure her survival.

* ''Series/MadMen'': CreepyChild Glen keeps showing up long after he stopped serving any clear purpose, just because he's played by Weiner's son. It really doesn't help that according to some interviews with Weiner, he's actually not ''supposed'' to be a creepy child; the kid just can't act, and Weiner can't accept that.

* ''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 (Even Creator/PennBadgley (who ''played'' Dan) thought this was dumb)]].

* ''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]].

* From ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'', Sophie was originally intended to stick around for a few episodes as a one-off character; however, her airheaded CloudCuckoolander personality made her well-liked by viewers, so she eventually became a series mainstay. But {{Flanderization}} set in fast, so by the start of season 3, her likeable traits were all but gone, transforming her character into a [[NoIndoorVoice loudmouthed]], [[AnythingThatMoves sex-crazed]] {{Jerkass}}. Yet as viewer opinion of her plummeted, the show's focus on her soared, to the point the plotlines of some episodes and even season-wide story arcs became focused around her, and viewers cringed in anticipation of the [[OncePerEpisode 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.

* From ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'', Sophie was originally intended to stick around for a few episodes as a one-off character; however, her airheaded CloudCuckoolander personality made her well-liked by viewers, so she eventually became a series mainstay. But {{Flanderization}} set in fast, so by the start of season 3, her likeable traits were all but gone, transforming her character into a [[NoIndoorVoice loudmouthed]], [[AnythingThatMoves sex-crazed]] {{Jerkass}}. Yet as viewer opinion of her plummeted, the show's focus on her soared, to the point the plotlines of some episodes and even season-wide story arcs became focused around her, and viewers cringed in 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/{{Bones}}'' has Christopher Pelant, a genius hacker and serial killer, who spends two seasons as antagonist, [[KarmaHoudini consistently avoiding capture]] due to dozens and dozens of AssPull escapes coming out of nowhere, such as [[spoiler: suddenly deleting his identity and creating a new one to get the authorities in 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.]]

* ''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 [[note]] And it should be noted that at this point, as this predates any future interest she'll have in Spike, she'd only had a history of liking ''one'' bad boy. Yes, it was a formative relationship, but certainly not a pattern yet. [[/note]] 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''. He proceeds to give her an ultimatum to either forgive him within 24 hours, or he's going to rejoin the army and leave the country, which Buffy very understandably rejects. After all this, the narrative expects you to take Riley's side, and has Xander rant to Buffy that she is to blame for their relationship failing, basically guilt-tripping her into taking Riley back. When he returns in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E15AsYouWere As You Were]]", none of his faults are brought up again and he's gotten HappilyMarried off-screen, 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.

* Hannah [=McKay=] from ''Series/{{Dexter}}''. The writers just adored her and were really clearly trying their absolute damnedest to make 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]]; that she came after the better-received [[NiceGirl Rita]] and [[BrokenBird Lumen]] marks her as a ReplacementScrappy on top of all that. Other characaters frequently [[CharacterShilling praise her and gush about how great a fit she and Dexter are]]. Her SpotlightStealingSquad tendencies got so bad that most of the story in Season 8 revolves 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 as to state he wished he could do a SpinOff based on the character (which never came to fruition, to the relief of Hannah's hatedom).
* Rose Tyler from ''Series/DoctorWho''. The Russell T. Davis era made it clear no other companion could live up to her, even classic series fan-favorite Sarah Jane Smith was at best a close tie. The Doctor spent the next season after she left [[CharacterShilling telling people how awesome she was]] OnceAnEpisode, with The Master gleefully joining in to taunt Martha. In reality she had basically spent her first season being TheLoad then in the finale saved the day {{Accident|alHero}}ly through a massive DeusExMachina that took absolutely no effort on her part. She was also always portrayed as right all the time even when displaying blatant MoralMyopia such as becoming jealous in "Boom Town" when she found out her boyfriend Mickey had been spending time with another woman, this is after she'd been blatantly having an emotional affair with the Doctor and had been abandoning him for months on end to travel with him [[MistakenForMurderer which almost got him arrested for murdering her,]] she was also indirectly responsible for the death of his parents. Then in the end while most companions get {{Bittersweet|Ending}} or even DownerEnding's she got basically everything she wanted living in a parallel universe where her father was still alive and getting her own clone of The Doctor to grow old with.

* Megan from ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' is a massive {{jerkass}} who makes her brothers miserable for no reason, yet [[KarmaHoudini gets away with everything]], infuriating the fandom to the point they legitimately wanted her killed off. For some reason, showrunner Dan Schneider was completely unaware of this.
* 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 spoiled 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.

* Increasingly and from Season 7 on out, many fans have felt this way about [[BewareTheMindReader Cecile]] from ''Series/TheFlash2014'': , who has [[SpotlightStealingSquad been seen as taking a large focus of the plot from Barry]], seen by many as UnintentionallyUnsympathetic due to her frequently reading people's minds without their consent, and getting increasingly powerful.
** [[LightEmUp Allegra]] from the same show is also perceived by many fans as a SpotlightStealingSquad while also being rather bland, with a plot with her cousin that was seen as boring SeasonalRot.

* ''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.]]

* In the early seasons of ''Series/HolbyCity'' the character of Victoria Merrick was often seen by fans as the creator's pet. She was incompetent 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).

** Imogen Willis actually managed to surpass her. She started off well, spending her first few months as a bright but insecure girl overlooked in favour of her brother and developing bulimia. Then she gets elected school captain and proceeds to lord it over everyone. The older boy she's been crushing on for months falls for her...and she abruptly decides she doesn't like him after all. Then she does it to the ''next'' major character to show an interest in her, while several guest characters think their only purpose is to spend their time on the show basking in her loveliness. She gets a job at a law firm while still at school, treats the secretary (who's twice her age) like an underling and somehow keeps the job despite constantly doing unethical things (tipping off her dad to a lawsuit against his employers, trying to get her brother out of an assault charge). Her best friend starts dating the latest boy she likes and she launches a vicious campaign against them that has even her [[ThickerThanWater notoriously biased]] mother admitting she's the bad guy, then wrecks their wedding by declaring her love to him that morning and getting stuck down a well with him (ItMakesAsMuchSenseInContext) and he ''still'' falls for her after she starts hanging around him as soon as he's single. And this time the show doesn't admit the relationship isn't working: Instead, the actor playing her boyfriend was effectively sacked so that, when she gets offered a dream job as an intern in LA, they can get a judge to grant special permission for her to marry him and take him with her, because apparently they're [[OneTruePairing Meant To Be]] even though they're been together six months and broken up twice. And even though he's a member of one of the show's original families and the son of the show's ultimate Golden Couple, he has to change his name to hers, because she's just that awesome.

* 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 [[ReplacementGoldfish 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]].

* Lana Lang from ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** 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.''

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' brings us Wesley Crusher, the [[Administrivia/RenamedTropes former]] {{Trope Namer|s}}. He nearly killed the show in the fans' eyes, by being an InsufferableGenius. Whenever the other characters weren't [[CharacterShilling praising him undeservedly]], they were [[NotNowKiddo rudely dismissing him undeservedly]], depending on which one would make him look better. Even worse was the 1987 Writer's Strike, which left the network sitting on a ton of unused "Wesley Saves The Day" scripts as most of what they had to work with. (Ironically, these episodes are generally considered SoOkayItsAverage, making him marginally more likable when he's the [[CharacterFocus focus character]], as opposed to when he's given such a large role in other episodes.) It got so bad that even Creator/WilWheaton, the actor who played him, [[CreatorBacklash hated his guts]]. He became a bit more bearable with the 5th season episode, "The First Duty", where he screws up ''big time'' by participating in an illegal stunt that gets a schoolmate killed and then attempting to cover it up, and for once he isn't EasilyForgiven, or [[IdiotHoudini otherwise allowed to get away with it]]. Instead, this leads to him [[TakeThatScrappy being bawled out]] by Captain Picard and getting that school year's marks voided. Eventually he was [[PutOnABus Put On A Shuttlecraft]] and the character disappeared from the series, only coming [[BackForTheFinale back for the near-final episode]] Journey's End, and finally being [[DeletedScene cut out]] of a [[TheCameo cameo]] appearance on ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''.

** Charlie Bradbury. While fan reaction is [[BaseBreakingCharacter very mixed]], she definitely qualifies by her second appearance. If being an over-the-top EndearinglyDorky 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 backstory, 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. She was later replaced by an angstier version of herself from a CrapsackWorld AlternateUniverse, who doesn't show up quite as often or is as clearly written as an EscapistCharacter.]]

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': Felicity Smoak in Seasons 1 and 2 was an {{Adorkable}} IT Girl and the source of a lot of the show's humor. As of the third season, she has taken on several of the traits that once led to Laurel and Thea being polarizing, is consistently depicted as being in the right, and has had large amount of screen-time dedicated to her subplots. In comparison, Diggle (Oliver's [[TheLancer longest running ally]]) only received a proper subplot in Season 4 because it was tied so closely to the main plot. The showrunners and most of the writers openly acknowledge that she's their favorite character. This treatment continued until Season 6, even as Felicity became more controversial.

** Ray Langston on the regular ''Series/{{CSI}}''. The producers had brought Lawrence Fishburne in to replace William Petersen as the show’s famous lead name. Ray entered as a Level 1 CSI but got a lot of the big plots, including the crossover of all 3 shows, due to this. He started out struggling a bit but often seemed to be a bit too good at a lot of things later on.

** Lucy Donato becomes an even bigger case of this than Taylor. Compared to Jonah who is introduced at the same episode she receives more interview exposures, [[https://tvline.com/2022/03/19/911-spoilers-maddie-chimney-return-season-5-interview/ preemptive words of praise on her character from Kristen Reidel the acting co-showrunner by saying she's "Breath of fresh air"]], [[https://tvline.com/2022/03/21/911-recap-season-5-episode-11-buck-lucy-kiss-explained/ an exposition to her backstory, and even jumping ahead on what the show wants to do to her character in the next seasons]] like wanting to have a cop family dinner scene with her family akin to Series/BlueBloods. Examples that probably cements Lucy on this status are [[https://ew.com/tv/9-1-1-arielle-kebbel-lucy-buck-interview this interview]] where the way the article was written implies that Lucy's actress and the co-showrunner did the interview together to hype the character up, something that's usually reserved to main characters, having a character arc about doubts over her ability as a firefighter after a lucky save in 5x14 that makes Buck [[spoiler:teaching her first responders have to accept all the lucky saves they can manage]] sound more ridiculous in retrospect when it's revealed in Season 6 premiere she has 5 years ahead of experience from him, Chimney at Season 5 finale openly declaring that the team loves her, [[https://tvline.com/lists/911-season-6-spoilers-buck-eddie-preview-fox/ The co-showrunner talking about Lucy on Season 6 premiere interview and saying "We love Lucy" over a more well-liked Ravi]] despite the backlash on the former, and a dedicated explanation to her absence in the first half of Season 6 in a scene where Bobby also decides to pick her as an interim captain over a more experienced Hen during the season premiere [[labelnote:even though]]there's an explanation later on why Bobby didn't pick Hen the first time[[/labelnote]] while Ravi who is equally absent for the same duration of time didn't receive even a mention to the character throughout the first half of the season. All of these exposures for a character whose initial role is closer to a plot device [[spoiler:by being in a pseudo love triangle plot between her, Buck, and Taylor]] so that a conflict can happen in [[spoiler:[[StrangledByTheRedString Buck and Taylor's relationship]]]], a conflict that not only is tired and cliche contrasting Kristen's claim of being fresh but also something that she ultimately plays little to no role in.

* Megan from ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' is a massive {{jerkass}} who makes her brothers miserable for no reason, yet [[KarmaHoudini gets away with everything]], infuriating the fandom to the point they [[AuthorsSavingThrow legitimately wanted her killed off]]. For some reason, showrunner Dan Schneider was completely unaware of this.

** Mia is a teen mom. You're wondering how she can afford to juggle her time between school, a baby, and cheerleading? [[UpToEleven She's also a model.]] She 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 is paired up with Peter (arguably the male Mia) and the duo are portrayed as Degrassi's power couple despite Peter being a creep who mistreats every woman he's ever encountered... yet the writers insisted on focusing way too much screen time on him as if he was a good guy all along.

** For Dick Ebersol, Creator/EddieMurphy was his pet UpToEleven, and he wasn't shy about letting you know that. SNL was basically the Eddie Murphy Show from Season 7 to 9 (until Murphy left). After that it became the Creator/BillyCrystal / Creator/ChristopherGuest / Creator/MartinShort show. Ebersol believed less in the emsemable format and more of having one or two stars with the other players in the background. Looking back Ebersol might have been correct. Building the show around Murphy very much saved SNL which was coming off record low ratings and possible cancellation after the 1980-81 season. SNL also seems to have its strongest seasons when it is built around either one or a few uber talented performer with the others in the background. The mid-90s to early 00s with Will Ferrell. The mid to late 80s with Dennis Miller, Dana Carvey, and Phil Hartman. The early 90s with Chris Farely and Mike Meyers. The mid 00s with Tina Fey, etc.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'': Elmo is despised for this reason. The writers never make him smart because he's supposed to represent the target audience's youngest age bracket, not to mention that he's given way too much to do and the show now suffers from his omnipresence.
** On a similar note, Abby Cadabby has gotten tons of screen time since her debut in 2006; although not as hated as Elmo, some people think she is a useless addition to the cast and is a huge SpotlightStealingSquad.

* Creator/{{Sprout}} had Chica of ''Series/TheSunnySideUpShow'' fame and Star of ''Series/TheGoodNightShow'' fame. Both characters got their own merchandise and the former even got [[Series/TheChicaShow her own show]].

* Rose Tyler from ''Series/DoctorWho''. The Russell T. Davis era made it clear no other companion could live up to her, even classic series fan-favorite Sarah Jane Smith was at best a close tie. The Doctor spent the next season after she left [[CharacterShilling telling people how awesome she was]] OnceAnEpisode, with The Master gleefully joining in to taunt Martha. In reality she had basically spent her first season being TheLoad then in the finale saved the day through {{Accident|alHero}}ly through a massive DeusExMachina that took absolutely no effort on her part. She was also always portrayed as right all the time even when displaying blatant MoralMyopia such as becoming jealous in "Boom Town" when she found out her boyfriend Mickey had been spending time with another woman, this is after she'd been blatantly having an emotional affair with the Doctor and had been abandoning him for months on end to travel with him [[MistakenForMurderer which almost got him arrested for murdering her,]] she was also indirectly responsible for the death of his parents. Then in the end while most companions get {{Bittersweet|Ending}} or even DownerEnding's she got basically everything she wanted living in a parallel universe where her father was still alive and getting her own clone of The Doctor to grow old with.

* Reva in ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'', to the point that there were talks of giving her a SpinOff before the show even concluded. Not only was she head of the SpotlightStealingSquad alongside Leia and Tala, but the writers deflected any criticism of her character with accusations of racism while giving Vader BondVillainStupidity to ensure her survival.

* Reva in ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'', to the point that there were talks of giving her a SpinOff before the show even concluded. Not only was she head of the SpotlightStealingSquad alongside Leia and Tala, but the writers deflected any criticism of her character with accusations of racism while giving [[CharacterDerailment Vader]] BondVillainStupidity to ensure her survival.