Line #90 CreatorsPet/LiveActionTV


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15	* 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]], 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.
16	* ''Series/NineOneOne'' has several.
17	** Taylor Kelly. Viewers' reactions were negative during her introduction episode in 2x06, particularly due to the fact that she's willing to film and release footage of Bobby being high and depressed to the point of almost committing suicide after eating the spiked brownies to boost her own career. She slowly re-enters the story in Season 4 as Buck's partner-in-crime, becomes his girlfriend during said season's finale, gets her own backstory in 5x07, and becomes the first person who [[spoiler: says "I love you" to Buck]] in 5x09. However, audience opinion of her has not warmed and has arguably become worse since the creators have continued to try and develop her character. Controversial aspects include lack of acknowledgement of her actions in season 2, the general redundancy of having a reporter character (the audience already experiences the emergencies through dispatchers and first responders), the lack of satisfying development of her relationship with Buck, and the fact that the creators keep pushing focus and screen time onto a character who is widely disliked instead of further developing existing, fan-favorite side characters like Karen and Albert[[note]]It is also worth mentioning that Taylor is white while Karen and Albert are people of color[[/note]]. Kristen Reidel later claimed that she got more focus in 5A because of scheduling conflict and being the one most available but 5x07, one of the episodes where she gets backstory, erasing 1-2 emergency calls to give her more screen time makes the truth of that claim debatable.
18	** Lucy Donato becomes an even bigger case of this than Taylor. Compared to Jonah, another recurring character also introduced in 5x11, 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 in which she ultimately plays little to no role while her counterpart Jonah has more plot relevance but receives little to no exposure.
19	* 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 describing 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 really 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 took her newfound child and ran off with Jamie. 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''.
20	** Since she comes to town, Dixie Cooney is consistently portrayed as the town sweetheart, heroine, saint, etc., despite the fact that she participates in the same shenanigans as most other characters--adultery, promiscuity, etc. When her ex-husband Adam sues her for custody of their son--JR, incidentally--much like JR would be 20-something years later, ''he'' is the one vilified by everyone, despite his legitimate concerns over Dixie's unstable behavior.
21	* Chris Lilley's series ''Series/AngryBoys'' has African-American rapper S'mouse who is hated by all critics and fans, some calling him racist, some calling him two-dimensional, others just not finding him funny. Unfortunately, there isn't really anything that could have been done to write the character out of the show.
22	* ''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, and culminated in the ultimate NeverLiveItDown moment: the double wedding, which many fans still haven't forgiven the character for to this very day.
23	* In the American ''Series/BigBrother'' the editors tend to pick their favorites out of the cast and show them off to the audience. The problem is, they think the audience will like them too and if they don't, they'll LoveToHate them. But they often just hate them instead. Most often, it's a "showmance" couple who gets the lion's share of screentime on the highlights just kissing and hugging each other.
24	** Brendon and Rachel in Season ''12'' and ''13'', but especially 13. The eight new houseguests have virtually no screentime whatsoever unless they're Dominic or Kalia, and Kalia only because she's aligned with Daniele, who turns traitor to the "Veterans Alliance". 50% of the screentime is dedicated to Brendon and Rachel, while 40% is dedicated to Jeff and Jordan, and 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 seemed to have forgotten they were cast too.)
25	** Some see Jeff and Jordan as the Creator's Pet because ''BB''[='s=] producers wanted to make a good show, which meant putting in a bunch of safeguards and slanting the show so that Jeff and Jordan would be on as long as possible, at the expense of the other extras on the show. Jeff got this more so than Jordan, as he was eventually hired by ''Big Brother'' (interviewing the contestants, commenting on episodes, etc). Because of this, the producers became more eager than ever to show off their "''Big Brother'' Legend Jeff Schroeder", with him making more appearances on the live shows than other popular contestants could ever hope to see.
26	** Rachel in particular had probably the severest case of ExecutiveMeddling designed to help a 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) do, and have. The challenges are all something they're familiar with. After her boyfriend is 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 cause Jeff and Daniele to be voted out, 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 (the one 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. 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 sabotages her game as it did to Porsche... it's a shopping spree. That's some ''[[SarcasmMode amazing]]'' [[SarcasmMode luck]].
27	** Mike "Boogie" Malin. It's obvious the producers loved him, but theyd 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.
28	** Season 16 has Frankie Grande, an attention whore who most fans loathed, but who was given top billing to boost ratings.
29	** In Season 18, Nicole Franzel and Corey Brooks, 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.
30	** In Aeason 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 placed with the least likable]] and [[TooDumbToLive hands-down stupidest batch of players ever]]. His popularity took a nosedive without [[MoralityPet Victor Arroyo]] around to keep his {{jerkass}} tendencies in check, or [[EnemyMine more disliked players like Nicole and Corey]] who 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 wanted Rachel Reilly, Jodi Rollins, Jessica Graf, Cody Nickson and Jessie Godderz, who had a much smaller 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.
31	* Hope Logan from ''Series/TheBoldAndTheBeautiful''. The writers' love for her results in at least [[OncePerEpisode one or two]] scenes per episode where characters [[CharacterShilling talk about]] her [[PurityPersonified purity]] and [[EmbodimentOfVirtue virtue]]. She's such a [[TheParagon paragon]] of [[NiceGuy goodness]] that after her stepsister's [[ConvenientMiscarriage miscarriage]], she tries to convince Steffy's husband that it's for the best so that they can be together again. It's hard to swallow a character who we're constantly told is the [[IncorruptiblePurePureness epitome of goodness]] [[SugarAndIcePersonality acting so cold]]. Fans are [[BrokenBase polarized]] about her, not that it stopped her from being shoved in their faces as if they were trying to make the audience love her... or else.
32	** Liam, no matter how many women's lives he screws up, [[CharacterShilling everyone will never stop singing his praises]] of how much of a great guy he is.
33	* ''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]].
34	* Gina from ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' frequently came in for accusations of this. Despite being a raging asshole to almost every other character, she 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 comeuppance, whereas any other character doing something wrong towards ''her'' is usually treated as a borderline MoralEventHorizon crossing which must be atoned for in some way, no matter how minor the offense is. She eventually becomes the character who provides the solution to the episode's central problem regardless of how unlikely, strained or repetitive this may seem, and, despite her [[TheDitz ditzy]] personality, apparently has more smarts and skills than a squad full of trained police officers. 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 4 is over by the end of the 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 a minor inconvenience every once in a while. These repeated accusations from the fanbase, however, may have contributed to her character getting written out of the series (aside from one appearance as [[CharacterShilling a celebrity with a cult-like following]]). A frequent critique during her lengthy absence in Season 5 (due to the actress being on maternity leave) was that for all the creative team's efforts to push her, the show carried on more or less exactly the same without her.
35	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Riley. Whedon never wanted the vampire romance, so when he got the opportunity to give Buffy a human {{Love Interest\|s}}, 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 [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys 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.
36	* ''Series/{{Charmed\|1998}}'':
37	** Phoebe was seen as this in the fifth to seventh seasons. Particularly, the character applies NeverMyFault to the Cole situation; she treats him as though he was responsible for everything that went wrong in their lives, ignoring her own mistakes. She is never called out in the narrative for her faults, which thoroughly aggravated 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.
38	** Billie Jenkins in the final season isn't well-liked because she was created just 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 is TheReveal that she is the Ultimate Power, making her stronger than any villain the sisters had to face before.
39	** As time went on, fans came to see Prue as this (she was popular in the early days of the show). The narrative frequently puts her on the moral high ground, she's shown as right for doing things other characters got criticized for, storylines revolve around her, and she inevitably comes out on top.
40	* Gabby Dawson of ''Series/ChicagoFire'' is a terrible paramedic riding a wave of ProtagonistCenteredMorality. Even if we skip the series' frequent use of ArtisticLicenseMedicine, she still commits gross insubordination repeatedly (the ''only'' offense that can get a fire department employee fired on the spot), performs medical procedures that are outside her scope of practice (bye-bye paramedic certification, hello prison), openly carries on an inappropriate relationship with her company officer, casually violates the expressed wishes of a conscious and oriented patient (they have a legal word for that: kidnapping), on one occasion casually destroying a social worker's cell phone, the list goes on. It's really no wonder the EMS battalion chief is always looking for an excuse to get rid of her, she's one of the worst liabilities imaginable. And she always gets 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. 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), half-ass everything, and then score 100% on the test, it's easy to see why people deride her.
41	* Irish drama ''Series/TheClinic'' has this with Dr. Dan. He starts off as a corrupt third-string cast member, then is found out and leaves. A year or so later, he comes back and begins going out with the lead character. Then when she dies, he becomes the lead. Through all this he never reforms, constantly lies for seemingly no good reason, tries to scam people, and generally 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.
42	%% * [[CousinOliver Olivia]] in ''Series/TheCosbyShow''. Lampshaded in the episode "Nightmare on Stigwood Avenue." Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
43	* 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, is 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 shows flashes of these skills from time to time, which became iconic moments for the character. In Season 7, JJ becomes a profiler and leaves the media liaison position, [[TookALevelInBadass learning the requisite skills before the season begins]]. That storyline isn't bad in principle, but what ruins it is that JJ never "grows" 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 she received most 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 was never a chance to repair the character for better.]]
44	* 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.
45	* Dr. Daniel Jonas in ''Series/DaysOfOurLives''. In his time in Salem, numerous characters [[CharacterShilling prop him up]], telling people he's the best surgeon, boyfriend, lover, etc., etc. In addition, veteran and legacy characters are thrown under the bus to prop Daniel, including the destruction of longtime supercouple Jack and Jennifer Deveraux. His character is 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 many of the characters constantly discuss what a great guy he is even when he's not in that day's episode. The show constantly force-fed 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.
46	* ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'':
47	** Emma was the first, though Craig shared time with her in this. The difference being that while Craig is angsty and whiny from the start, the writers gave him a plurality of episodes in seasons 2, 3, and 4. Then there's Emma, who is also angsty and whiny as well as being[[AuthorFilibuster a place to inject the writers' political views]], in addition to being self-righteous and bitchy, and she's a {{tsundere}} who's much more "tsun" than "dere". Her issues tend to be things you have 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 gets a plurality of episodes in seasons 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. She's a black hole who sucks the redeeming qualities out of every character she's around.
48	** Mia is a teen mom. You're wondering how she can afford to juggle her time between school, a baby, and cheerleading? 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.
49	** Drew Torres has shown various narcissistic tendencies, which the creators nonchalantly brush off as mild foolishness. He kicks off his run on Degrassi by blackmailing another character, threatening to out him to the entire school, a possibility the character is shown to be quite afraid of, because he wants to be the school quarterback. Later on, he dates Zoe and remarkably forgets that Zoe is three years younger than him, and not old enough to give him consent for sex. This does not stop him. He later acts surprised when she tells him she's a virgin, even though he himself did not lose his virginity until he was seventeen. To add on to the horrible things Drew does, he cheats on every girlfriend he gets, 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. Drew couldn'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 managed to become the leading male of season 13.\
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51	The writers had a habit of putting characters in horrible situations and/or ruining other characters in order to make Drew come off as a good person. This includes his 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 insults Bianca several times, saying that "every horrible thing everyone's said about you is right", which she takes very well well without even thinking negatively of him. The night where he saves Alli from getting sexually assaulted by Owen takes place just 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 had 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 to make Drew 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 idea that his sexual drive couldn't wait three months is just ridiculous. This is made even more ridiculous when considering the fact that Clare and Drew didn't even share a line together before season 12C, and their entire relationship is far too rushed to be taken seriously).\
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53	The fact that Drew is [[KarmaHoudini 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 have to go to a self-respect seminar, while he and all the other male students are let off the hook. After he cheats on Katie with Bianca (and then Bianca with Katie), Katie initially takes all her frustrations out on Bianca, but when she finally gets revenge on Drew by exposing him in front of Bianca, she forgives him an episode or two later. After the incident with Zoe, he is told off by his mother, but is not punished severely by her, and is not punished by the school at all.
54	** Mr./Principal Simpson. As a teacher, fans of the show often poke fun at him for his treatment of his students. He isn't "too strict", or "too kind"... well he is, but at random and unexpected times. He thinks Principal Raditch is being too strict when he gives 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 by 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 cyberbullies Maya (even though this is grounds for expulsion), but 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, but he punishes Imogen for forgetting to wear a bra to school. This goes without mentioning his sexist treatment of the students. He forces female students who act "inappropriately" at the school's Vegas dance to attend a self-esteem workshop, while failing to hold the male students to the same standard. This comes off as extremely odd considering that his own step-daughter is one of the biggest feminists on the show. And for this treatment, he somehow became the only character to appear in every season of the Degrassi franchise.
55	%% ** Clare Edwards is beloved by the writers and has a ridiculous amount of screentime, which didn't endear 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. Administrivia/ZeroContextExample - not enough focus is given on why she's a creator's pet
56	* Susan Mayer of ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' was confirmed by creator Marc Cherry to be his favorite, a sentiment not shared by the audience, who found her ContrivedClumsiness deeply obnoxious, along with her constant meddling, her questionable parenting of fan-favorite Julie, her featuring in ''every'' major plotline, and constantly getting forgiven for doing awful things like burning Edie's house down in Season 1.
57	* 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 characters 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).
58	* 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]] OncePerEpisode, 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 {{accidental\|Hero}}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 {{Downer Ending}}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.
59	* Bates from ''Series/DowntonAbbey''. Introduced as Lord Grantham's faithful batman from the Boer War, who walks with a limp but [[DontYouDarePityMe insists he can still do his job]] and is [[TheStoic determined to suffer in silence]], and is invariably portrayed as a saint. He puts HonorBeforeReason to the point where he can be successfully blackmailed with a secret that isn't even his. At times there are hints that he has some kind of seedy, shameful secret of his own -- helped out by his usually being [[PoorCommunicationKills pointlessly cryptic when asked about it]] -- but upon investigation he comes out looking even better and more self-sacrificing than before. He has a romance with Anna, but obstacles keep being thrown their way, mainly in the form of his [[ForTheEvulz absurdly bitter and malicious estranged wife]], who (apparently) even arranges a ThanatosGambit by setting up her suicide to look like he murdered her, for which he is convicted and languishes in prison preparing his appeal -- and even then he almost seems to care more about the internal politics of Downton than about how his case is going. [[StoicWoobie The universe can't do enough bad things to him]], [[IncorruptiblePurePureness he can't do enough nice things for everyone else]], and [[ThePollyanna he never harbors a grudge about any of it]]. Not only is the overall effect unspeakably bleak and boring, it's weighed down Anna, a generally well-liked character, by reducing her to his SatelliteLoveInterest. Fan comments to the effect that they hope he ''did'' kill his wife after all, as that would at least be interesting and account for the amount of time that's been spent on his storyline, are very common.
60	* 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 Creator/DanSchneider was completely unaware of this.
61	* 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 TheReasonYouSuckSpeech 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.
62	* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'':
63	** Zane. The writers have labored diligently to make this character likable, yet audience dislike continues, probably largely because Zane [[OneTruePairing replaced fan favorite Taggart as Deputy Jo Lupo's romantic foil]]. Despite this pairing (or perhaps because of it) being the focal point of viewer discontent, the writers placed even more emphasis on Zane's relationship with Lupo in Season 4, rather than pursuing the slightly more successful tactic used in some Season 3 episodes of developing Zane's interactions with other characters, thus elevating Zane from a [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] to a Creator's Pet. Lupo and Zane relationship is becoming increasingly prominent and with the addition that Zoe is falling for him, it seems the writers are trying far too hard to make him likeable. After the Matrix arc at the beginning, he's been acting like a spoiled brat because a virtual version of his girlfriend was with a virtual version of Carter. This is apparently enough reason to treat both the two like crap. The other characters treat this as appropriate.
64	** Creator/WilWheaton himself appears in the last season, as a deliberate parody of his [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration own hated character Wesley]].
65	* ''Series/TheFlash2014'':
66	** Increasingly and from Season 7 on out, many fans have felt this way about [[BewareTheMindReader Cecile]], 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.
67	** [[LightEmUp Allegra]] 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.
68	* 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 a BaseBreakingCharacter of the show.
69	* Dr. Zee in ''Series/{{Galactica 1980}}'', a TeenGenius as annoying a plot device as Wesley Crusher would later be. Made even worse by that he was ([[TheOtherDarrin at first]]) played by the same actor as CousinOliver, Robbie Rist.
70	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
71	** 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. [[spoiler: Then at the end of Season 3 when she's given a shocking DeathByAdaptation, her many haters [[AlasPoorScrappy were horrified]].]]
72	* ''Series/GeneralHospital'':
73	** Maxie Jones, once an extremely popular character, has suffered from being extremely overexposed, along with Spinelli and the whole "Spixie" pairing in general, with both Maxie and Spinelli quickly become hated in the fandom.
74	** The "Spixie" ship created another Creator's Pet in the form of Winifred, who was basically killed on arrival when the head writer proclaimed his enthusiasm for the chemistry between her and Spinelli... ''before a single episode featuring them aired.'' It doesn't help that she was given the same character traits as Spinelli, thus making half the fandom hate her on the spot, with the other half hating her because, well, she was breaking up their favorite ship.
75	** Carly Corinthos Jax can meet this definition, 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]]
76	** Brenda Barrett. Even when she's not there characters are constantly singing her praises and she's referenced in almost a godlike manner. Most every heroine on the show is compared to her, and told how they will never even compete with her. Whenever she returns to Port Charles, characters are either falling at her feet or are reviled by her (and are immediately vilified for this reaction). The show cannot ''ever'' decide who her true soulmate is--Sonny or Jax. It constantly changes whenever she comes back. But when she ''does'' come back, her presence ruins the relationship either Jax or Sonny is in so they can conveniently hook up with her. But since Vanessa Marcil ''never'' stays with the show long, something comes up to break up Brenda's relationship with either man, and it's always ''their'' fault, NOT BRENDA'S, that their relationship is over. One poignant example of this is when Brenda returned in the early 2000s, believing that she had inherited her mother's fatal disease. Not only does she use her "illness" to interfere with Jax and Skye's marriage, but they ''have an affair''. Guess who's made out to be the villain in this situation? SKYE! So she gets back together with Jax, but then turns around and shares a kiss with Sonny! Jax witnesses their kiss, and proceeds to rightfully expose her in front of everyone at the altar. But STILL, Brenda is not held accountable for it and ''Jax'' is vilified for humiliating Brenda and ruining her "big day", causing her to flee Port Charles in tears. At least with Carly people acknowledge that she's not a good person. Brenda however is ALWAYS portrayed as a godly heroine without ''any'' faults.
77	%%** Lulu Spencer from the daytime drama used to be a Creators' Pet until the focus was shifted from her to Maxie Jones and she was written better.
78	* ''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)]]. It may not be conicidence that Safran was also in charge of the SequelSeries which wasn't ''nearly'' as successful than the original...
79	* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
80	** Arthur Petrelli. He was introduced as a blatant replacement for the other fan favorite of season two, Adam Monroe, and was instrumental in the Great Season 2 Character Purge. Despite quickly establishing himself as the single most powerful villain the show had seen yet (or possibly, because of it) he quickly became a case of OrcusOnHisThrone and sat around drawing pretty paintings until the fandom made it clear how much he was hated and Sylar euthanized him.
81	** Niki. Initially fairly warmly received by fans, she quickly wore out her welcome with her multiple personality subplot and [[spoiler: causing the death of fan-favourite DL. Fans rejoiced that she died, only for yet another identical twin to come back because the writers felt that the show apparently couldn't go on without Ali Larter]].
82	%%** Wonder Twins. Someone high up must have loved them to let them stick around so long; Maya even came back the next season (without her accent) just to help derail Mohinder. It doesn't help that the power is cool in theory but their characters seem to be plucked right out of a Spanish soap opera.
83	* 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 {{lampshade\|Hanging}} 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).
84	* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'':
85	** Det. Laura Ballard follows this trope to a 'T'. Her debut episode has Giardello and all the other detectives talking her up, telling Frank Pembleton and Tim Bayliss about how good she is. When they work a case together, fan favourite Frank Pembleton is made to look like a complete fool, ignoring a totally obvious lead in favour of one that was totally out there, just so that Ballard could look good. She spends almost her entire tenure on the show demanding that the male characters respect her, despite being nothing special as a detective, in stark contrast to fan favourite Kay Howard (who had left by this point) who worked hard to EARN to the respect of her male co-workers, or Megan Russert, who also EARNED the respect of her co-workers.
86	** Falsone. Falsone was a fairly stereotypical Italian-American cop (played by an actor with a slight but nonetheless obvious Hispanic accent) who ate up all the screen time with his fairly stereotypical custody battle for his fairly stereotypical young son who he stereotypically loved unconditionally and was stereotypically denied access to him by a stereotypically conniving ex-wife. It got to the point where fans started a 'I hate Falsone' hate group on the Internet.
87	* ''Series/{{House}}'': Martha Masters, Thirteen's temporary replacement while her actress, Creator/OliviaWilde, was shooting ''Film/TronLegacy'', is widely disliked. Many season 7 episodes focused heavily on her, and she came across as worse than Cameron--not just obnoxious, but obviously didn't know what she was saying or doing outside of differentials.
88	%%* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Ted's season 6 love interest Zoey. While not quite as bad a case as Don, it still annoyed fans that she became such a big part of Ted's story arc that season.
89	* ''Series/MadMen'': CreepyChild Glen keeps showing up long after he stopped serving any clear purpose, just because he's played by showrunner Matthew 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.
90	* The Filipino Christian drama ''Series/MayBukasPa'' (There's Still 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 and also an Creator/{{ABSCBN}} executive!!!) 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?"]]
91	* ''Series/{{Neighbours}}'':
92	** 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 postponed 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 qualifications 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.
93	** 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 (MakesAsMuchSenseInContext) 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.
94	* ''Series/TheNoddyShop'' has Sherman and Rusty treated this way. Every other episode has them as the focus among the toys, usually in a situation where two people had different opinions on a particular topic. Warloworth was also a victim of this trope in episodes where there is a difficult situation a child would misunderstand. It got to the point where due to this, barely any other toys [[ADayInTheLimelight got to have episodes focused on them]], except for Planet Pup [[note]]the main toy character due to his friendship with Truman[[/note]] and Johnny Crawfish [[note]]whose episode where he got focused on had his problem be the B-plot, and it isn't mentioned on the official summary.[[/note]].
95	* 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 defending her at one point).
96	* 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.
97	* Inverted on ''Series/PeepShow''. The fanbase loved Matt King's character Super Hans and actually wanted more of him but the writers were resistant to do so. It helps that they had a high degree of awareness that Super Hans is similar to Jeremy (he's basically Jez with no positive traits) and were wary of him becoming unfunny too quickly. His appearances became more frequent in later series, though.
98	* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'' Danny Quinn himself was accepted by the team far too easily and could basically do no wrong (despite spending his first episode impeding and bullying the team, which didn't exactly endear him). It didn't help that he was an action hero type who seemed to be from a completely different genre than Primeval previously had been. The fact that he was given the big final confrontation with the show's BigBad, ahead of characters who'd been on the show three seasons and had actually met her before, grated somewhat as well.
99	* ''Series/{{Revenge}}'': Victoria ascended to the position in Season 4, suddenly becoming an InvincibleVillain who effortlessly demolished every move Emily made against her. Many fans accused the writers of being overly enamored with Madeleine Stowe's performance, to the point that they refused to let the character get any comeuppance and half the time it felt like we were supposed to be rooting for her. [[spoiler: Unlike most Creator's Pets, however, Victoria ''did'' get her comeuppance - [[KilledOffForReal the ultimate comeuppance]] - in the SeriesFinale.]]
100	* 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]].
101	* ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'': Every so often Ru will have a clear favourite, and they're not always the fans' favourite. With Jorgeous in season 14, it was so obvious that even the other queens commented on it.
102	--> '''Bosco:''' I don't want to go up against Jorgeous. I'm pretty sure [=RuPaul=] has signed up to be an organ donor for Jorgeous.
103	* ''Saturday Morning All Star Hits'': InUniverse - when the cartoon block's host Skip makes a cameo appearance on the show [[WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985 Strongimals]] with a single line ("Umm...subs?"). Despite a lukewarm reception, in a few weeks Skip becomes the main character of ''Skip and the Strongimals'', resolves the series' conflict in a single lines (just stop fighting the BigBad) and gains the main role in a LiveActionAdaptation. By the season's end Skip's star has faded, and his brother Corbie is on the [[HereWeGoAgain ascent...]]
104	* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'':
105	** Creator/LorneMichaels most definitely has his favorites. But it wasn't very pronouced in SNL's earlier seasons where there was so much talent that it was hard to feature just only a few performers. In was really in the late 90s to current day that fans noticed Michaels had his pet projects. Some of these favorites include Creator/JimmyFallon, Creator/TinaFey, Creator/AmyPoehler, Fred Armisen, Creator/WillForte, Creator/KristenWiig, Taran Killam and Creator/KateMcKinnon. Interesting that Michaels named Creator/WillFerrell as maybe his all time favorite SNL cast member and his was never considered one of Michael's favorites when he started.
106	*** This wound up being subverted by Killam, as he and the similarly popular Jay Pharaoh wound up being let go despite having more time on their contracts. Given both were regularly contributing to the show in well received ways, their removal was not well received.
107	** During Jean Doumanian's brief yet infamous time as showrunner, she basically groomed Creator/CharlesRocket to be the "breakout star" of the show. She made him the lead in multiple sketches, put him in charge of the Weekend Update desk, and even gave him his own segment known as the "Rocket Report". Hell, in the first episode, Rocket even called himself "a cross between Creator/ChevyChase and Creator/BillMurray". Unfortunately, many saw him as a poor man's version of both of them (Rocket's reportedly diva-like attitude backstage didn't help matters either. Notably, during the episode Murray hosted, he pointedly turns away from Rocket). This all culminated with Charles saying the F-word on ''live television''. By the end of Season 6, both Rocket and Doumanian were fired, their careers tanked, and Rocket eventually took his own life in 2005.
108	** For Dick Ebersol, Creator/EddieMurphy was his pet, 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.
109	** As listed above, Creator/JimmyFallon got hit with this quite a bit. While he did prove to be quite adept at impressions, resulting in plenty of roles, [[{{Corpsing}} the fact that he could never get through a sketch without laughing]] became infamous. Despite many believing his laughing episodes took away from mute sketches, he was constantly out in the spotlight, which made him a highly divisive cast member. Not helping was that he also ran Weekend Update during his tenure, so Fallon's detractors were guaranteed to see plenty of him each night no matter what. He would go on to gain this reputation from NBC as a whole after leaving, once he gained his own talk show in ''Series/LateNight'' and was later given the coveted ''Series/TheTonightShow'', additionally getting several hosting gigs for NBC broadcast award shows and SNL episodes and special, even getting to open up the show's fortieth anniversary. All this exposure caused many to jump on the Fallon hatedom and caused many accusations of him being the network's personal lapdog.
110	** Creator/KristenWiig's herself was this for many fans during the 2008-2010 seasons. She was guaranteed to be in the majority of the skits every show, almost always playing the female lead. It didn't help that most of her recurring characters, like Gilly and her awful Kathy Lee impression, were incredibly grating and time-consuming (despite Gilly being widely believed to be her least funny character even by Wiig's fans, she even got a freaking holiday special!). Even worse, the other female cast members were shoved into background roles to make more, unneeded room for Wiig. With Wiig out of the cast, however, the rest of the female cast have now been finally given enough screentime to show their talents.
111	** As of season 46, Creator/AidyBryant and Creator/CecilyStrong have become accused of being this as they've been allowed to miss several episodes of the season outside of pre-taped sketches done remotely so they could film their own television shows instead. Given the two of them have already been on the show for eight seasons, which are among the longest tenures in the show's history, many fans feel they've had their time and they should just walk away to strictly focus on their solo projects and allow some of the newer cast members to make their mark on the show.
112	** Also for season 46, some feel that Creator/MayaRudolph has become one. After making several appearances the previous year as then presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Rudolph continued the role after Joe Biden named Harris as his running mate. Suddenly, not only did Rudolph's Harris start appearing in almost all the cold opens, even when she was only slightly connected and therefore didn't have much to do, but Rudolph also started appearing in multiple other sketches throughout the episodes.[[note]]In the episode that featured a parody of the second and last 2020 presidential debate as the cold open, Rudolph appeared as moderator Kristen Welker.[[/note]] While Rudolph is a very popular comedic actress and former cast member, some fans have criticized her sheer number of appearances this season as yet another example of SNL neglecting it's current cast in favor of big names.
113	** As mentioned above, Creator/KateMcKinnon very much qualifies. A popular cast member, she went from initially being something of an EnsembleDarkhorse, as she found her role increasing as more of the bigger names in the cast started to leave, to become the show's MVP by that point in the eyes of many. She then went on to portray Hillary Clinton, widely regarded as the frontrunner for the upcoming presidency, and won an Emmy for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series not long afterwards. And then, by the next season, [=McKinnon's=] role started to greatly increase. She continued to portray Clinton until her shocking election loss, but then took over for a wide variety of Donald Trump's cabinet members, most of them men, as well as often finding herself at the center of sketches, to the point where she basically eclipsed her entire supporting actress to become something of a leading lady. This major exposure would continue for the following years, which some viewers thought was stretching [=McKinnon=] far too thin, with her work not being as fresh and exciting as it once was, likely due to such a large workload. This eventually culminated in, when the show debuted a Robert Mueller impression played by [=McKinnon=], it being poorly received, which was not so much blamed on [=McKinnon=] herself but rather it being a symptom of the large workload granted by the show to [=McKinnon=] spreading her too thin, resulting in the role being recast with Creator/RobertDeNiro to a much more positive reception.
114	** Creator/PeteDavidson has repeatedly been accused of being one. Several viewers have noted that having an actor who both has very little range and almost always breaks character is a poor fit for a live sketch show which requires playing a multitude of parts. There's also the fact that Davidson has repeatedly either barely appeared in or completely missed episodes, with accusations that he doesn't pull his own weight in comparison to the other big names in the current cast. And then there's the time where he was still allowed to remain on the show even after publicly criticizing his coworkers. Many have noted that due to Davidson gaining fame from his relationship with Ariana Grande and frequency discussing his poor mental health have caused Lorne Michaels to give Davidson free passes due to a combination of taking advantage of his fame as well as stopping his health from worsening. All this has caused Davidson to become one of the more divisive actors in the show's cast.
115	* Flynn from ''Series/ShakeItUp''. At only 10 years old he is portrayed as a SpoiledBrat far more intelligent than all the characters older than him, except Henri. They even said he set up Wi-Fi in the apartment when he was three. Also, he is given all the good stuff no matter what he does. He's been given the spotlight dance despite not doing anything the entire episode, he tricked Rocky into getting him a toy by pretending to be a needy child, becoming an internet sensation, and even impressing a girl twice his age. No matter what he does he almost always gets away with his actions despite being selfish, greedy, and obnoxious.
116	* ''Series/{{Skins}}'': Tony from the American version of ''Skins'', who didn't seem believable as the most popular guy in school and overall just came off as a whiny little twit, especially with James Newman's terrible acting. Yet, the writers kept shoving him in the viewers' faces, with him even getting it on with the show's resident ''lesbian''.
117	* Lana Lang from ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' 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 Creator/KristinKreuk 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.''
118	* On ''Series/{{Smash}}'', [[http://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/how-smash-became-tvs-biggest-train-wreck according to people who worked on the show]], Julia was an example of this. She was reportedly not allowed to have any genuine struggles to work through, because according to showrunner Theresa Rebeck, "She's the hero! She saves everything!"
119	* Gemma Teller-Morrow from ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'' gradually became this. Some fans think that her character is quite overused and takes up focus in plots that isn't even about her. Throughout the show she lies, schemes and bullies people but rarely suffers the consequences of her own actions while others have to. [[spoiler: Even after the controversial finale of Season 6 which ended with her killing her own daughter-in-law and then putting the blame on the Triads to save her own skin, the show [[AuthorsSavingThrow desperately]] tries to make you sympathize with her, and her eventual death at the hands of her own son is clearly portrayed in a sympathetic light [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic which many thought came off as unearned for someone like her]]. Not to mention that Jax never found out the truth about his own mother's involvement in his father's death. So in a way she got what she wanted]]. The fact that [[Creator/KateySagal her actor]] is married to [[Creator/KurtSutter the show's creator]] in real life ''might'' have something to do with it.
120	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine:'' Vic Fontaine. Ira Behr was so stoked at convincing one of his favorite musicians, James Darren, to join the show that he created a part just for him, a holographic lounge lizard. Darren, who was initially skeptical of returning to acting, became very invested in the part and eager to return, so Behr was obliged to keep inviting him back over fans' protestations. His many detractors felt that his constant presence in the back half of the final season (he was given several focus episodes) took screen time away from resolving ongoing plots and character arcs that fans had become invested in over the years. It didn't help that his presence in those episodes that didn't revolve around him often felt shoehorned (characters with no particular nostalgia for the period of Earth history he represents like Quark or Odo would go exclusively to him for advice, despite the fact that the station had just gotten a professional counselor) and many characters (most notably Julian) would [[CharacterShilling go on at length]] about what a great and insightful "person" he was before the audience had a chance to judge for themselves.
121	* ''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''.
122	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
123	** Ruby, at first. Fan-reaction to her was very negative at first, but Kripke believed that with enough time and characterization, fans would like her. Towards the end of Season 3, it seemed to be working, but the final reaction was... mixed.
124	** 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 {{Ascended Fan\|boy}}girl. 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 StuffedIntoTheFridge, 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.]]

Context CreatorsPet / LiveActionTV