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Big Bad Ensemble / Live-Action TV

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Big Bad Ensembles in Live-Action TV.

  • 24: Has this in its final two seasons. Although there's the main Big Bad that serves as the chief antagonist there's also a clear threat in a former hero working against everyone trying to kill said antagonist for personal reasons and who also has to be stopped because if he succeeds the consequences could actually make things even worse: Tony Almeida to Alan Wilson in Season 7 and Jack Bauer (despite being the protagonist) to what was already a Triumvirate of Charles Logan, Allison Taylor, and Yuri Suvarov in Season 8.
  • American Horror Story: Asylum takes place in an asylum run by a tyrannical nun, who is fighting with one of the doctors who experiments on their patients, while a demonically possessed nun, a Serial Killer posing as a one of the doctors, and some aliens run around the asylum doing awful things to the rest of the cast for kicks.
  • Angel:
    • This show was a master of this trope - at the height of Season 3, the Big Bads (Lila Morgan, Daniel Holtz, and Sajjhan) each got about as much screentime as the heroic main cast. Fans still debate over which of them "won" in terms of being the season's defining villain, while a few nominate a fourth character entirely.
    • The series is this, the big bads being Wolfram & Hart and Jasmine, who is directly or retroactively responsible for many events of the series until her death in Season 4. After that point, Wolfram & Hart's Senior Partners stay as the undisputed Big Bads of the show.
  • Arrow: Season 3's present-day Story Arc is dominated by a war between Ra's al Ghul and Malcolm Merlyn, with Team Arrow stuck in the middle. Meanwhile, the flashback storyline has Big Bad duties split between Amanda Waller, China White and General Shrieve.
    • Season 6 outdoes Season 3: you have Ricardo Diaz, Anatoly Knyazev, Black Siren, Vigilante, and Cayden James. They are actually a Big Bad Duumvirate with James being the leader.
  • Breaking Bad briefly delves into this in Season 4, when the tensions between Gus Fring and Don Eladio Vuente solidify again. They eventually resolve their dispute peacefully, only for Gus to then kill them all and avenge his friend / possible lover Max.
    • Its Spin-Off series Better Call Saul has Chuck McGill and Hector Salamanca during Seasons 2 and 3. Chuck serves as the primary antagonist in Jimmy, Kim Wexler and later Howard Hamlin's storylines, playing a major role in turning the former into Saul Goodman, while Hector serves as the primary antagonist in Mike Ehrmantraut, Nacho Varga, and later Gus Fring's storylines, being the reason why Mike and Gus hookup. Chuck and Hector are never scene interacting in the show and they both have vastly different agendas causing the storylines that they have created to not intertwine that much.
  • Chernobyl has Anatoly Dyatlov and Aleksandr Charkov. The former indirectly causes the explosion at Chernobyl Reactor #4 and botches the recovery effort with pointless and life-threatening orders, while the latter uses every trick in the KGB's playbook to cover up the design flaws that made the disaster possible. It's acknowledged by the heroes, on the other hand, that both of them are small fries compared to the whole of the Soviet system itself.
  • Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: The Big Bad Duumvirate of the first season, Father Blackwood and Madam Satan, are separated in the second and both are pursuing different agendas completely, but still acting as Big Bad for the show. Father Blackwood is trying to reform the Church of Night to his misogynistic image and manipulating Ambrose, Prudence and Zelda, while Madam Satan is working with the Dark Lord to bring about the end of days and make Sabrina follow a certain prophecy.
  • Control Z: Alex, a.k.a. the Avenger, and Pablo are the two main antagonists of the second season. The former poses a threat to the entire student body, particularly Gerry, by torturing them in such bloody ways in order to seek justice for Luis. In the latter's case, he is actively seen trying to get revenge on Raúl, whose previous actions as the hacker had brought out his darker side, thus gaining a lot of screen time and making him less sympathetic and more evil and dangerous than Alex is.
  • Dark Desire: Darío and Lys in the second season. Darío accidentally murders Julieta, his soon-to-be wife and makes up a doppelganger in an attempt to save both himself and his inheritance. Alma falls for it initially. Lys, on the other hand, seeks revenge on Darío, for abandoning her when they initiated an incestous relationship. She is revealed to have sent the postcard of Darío and Julieta's wedding to Alma's doorstep, then sent Julieta the porn video of Alma and Darío.
  • Defiance:
  • Doctor Who: As far as the franchise as a whole goes, it's an ensemble between the Daleks, the Cybermen and the Master, with the Sontarans occasionally joining in.
    • Seasons 2-3 of the Classic series had both the Daleks and the Meddling Monk as enemies to the Doctor, although the latter was more a Big Bad Wannabe who eventually decides to flee the scene.
    • The post-Genesis Dalek serials generally featured a Big Bad Ensemble between Davros and the Supreme Dalek, leading the Imperial Daleks and Renegade Daleks respectively on opposite sides of the Dalek Civil War.
    • Series 2 of the revival has both the Cybermen and the Daleks (represented by the Cult of Skaro), with the finale seeing them going at it.
    • Series 13 (Flux) has the Ravager twins, Swarm and Azure, who are seeking to gain control of the titular Flux, and Commander Stenck, head of the Sontaran offensive to exploit the Flux for their conquest. There's also Tecteun, the one who unleashed the Flux in the first place.
  • The Exorcist has the demonic "Salesman" aka Pazuzu tormenting the Rance family, and Father Simon, the leader of the Satanic cult haunting Chicago and plotting to assassinate the Pope. Both have the same overall goal, but go about it quite independently of each other.
  • Farscape: Season 4 has Commandant Grayza of the Peacekeepers and Emperor Staleek of the Scarran Empire, who are actually at war with each other as well as with the protagonists.
  • Foundation (2021): In Season 2, there are multiple antagonists who are largely unconnected to each other and have differing goals. Brother Day (Cleon XVII) is the villain of the Foundation invasion storyline, with Bel Riose serving as his unwilling Heavy and engineered the death of Queen Sareth's family with Demerzel to force her into a politically advantageous marriage to strengthen the flagging Empire's waning power. Tellem Bond is the villain of Hari, Gaal, and Salvor's storyline, a powerful Mentalic who views herself as superior to normal humans and wants to steal Gaal's body and psychic power to continue extending her own life. The Mule is the Greater-Scope Villain, a Mentalic warlord even stronger than Tellem who will threaten the galaxy 158 years into the future, and whose coming must be prepared for by creating the Second Foundation to safeguard the Plan. Finally, Eto Demerzel is revealed as the "forever Empress" of the Empire in the final episodes, Cleon I's true heir and successor, who grooms and moulds the clones as the public rulers, and is forced by the reprogramming Cleon gave her to safeguard the continuation of the Genetic Dynasty at all costs, despite not actually wanting to, and who ends up with one of the Prime Radiants at the end of the season and is determined to learn its secrets.
  • Game of Throness Big Bad situation can be summed up as one particularly expansive ensemble. Top contenders in it include:
    • Tywin Lannister, Hand of the King and the real power behind the throne in King's Landing, as Joffrey would rather torment others than be an effective ruler, and the few times he does rule it ends up creating more problems for Tywin to solve.
    • Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, who despite being of lower standing than the other villains is a skilled manipulator who plays a role in causing some of the biggest upsets in Westeros, including the War of the Five Kings and Joffrey's death, with the goal of manipulating his way into more power.
    • Roose Bolton, head of House Bolton who seeks to usurp the Starks as the ruling house of the North. He eventually gets his wish after allying with Tywin, only to be killed in Season 6 by his bastard son Ramsay, who promptly takes his place in the ensemble.
    • Mance Rayder, the "King beyond the Wall", who leads the Wildlings/Free Folk and seeks to overrun the Night's Watch before invading Westeros.
    • And behind all of them looms the setting's Greater-Scope Villain, the Night's King, leader of the White Walkers who are slowly advancing on Westeros.
    • After some particularly big shakeups occur at the end of the fourth season, new contenders emerge in the form of Cersei Lannister and the High Sparrow. Towards the end of Season 6, Euron Greyjoy also emerges as another contender after taking control of the Iron Isles and setting his sights on the Iron Throne.
    • After the events of the Season 6 finale, There are only four villains remaining: Cersei, Littlefinger, Euron and the Night King. And after the events of the Season 7 finale, The list goes down to three: Cersei, Euron, and the Night King. Although the Final Boss ends up being Daenarys Targaryen after she scorches King's Landing.
  • GoGo Sentai Boukenger: The "Negative Syndicate" is actually not a syndicate or one entity at all. It's sentai tradition to have a name to shout out when any of this year's villains show up, and this year it's "Negative!" but apparently a 'negative syndicate' is what SGS calls any of its enemies. There are four distinct villain teams: Gaja is trying to revive the ancient Gordom Civilization and conquer humanity, Ryuuwon is kinda the same but with his own dinosaur-men, Dark Shadow are a group of ninjas who steal artifacts and sell to the highest bidder, and the Questers, Gai and Rei, are the two currently free members of the Ashu are the race that went into legend as all the various types of Youkai. Sometimes it's a Legion of Doom, sometimes it's an Enemy Civil War, usually you just don't know which of the Rogues Gallery will be sending the Monster of the Week this time until it happens.
  • Gotham:
    • Season 1 is basically one long game of Xanatos Speed Chess between Falcone, Maroni, Fish, and Cobblepott for control of Gotham's criminal underworld. And that's not even including The Conspiracy inside Wayne Enterprises. Or the Dollmaker. Or the various villains of the day.
    • Season 2 adds Theo Galavan and the Order of Saint Dumas, while the aforementioned The Conspiracy is revealed to be the Court of Owls, and operates mostly through its agent Hugo Strange.
    • By Season 3, Galavan and Strange are out of the picture, but the Mad Hatter takes on a prominent role opposite the other big players, whose place is later taken over by a recently revived Jerome Valeska.
  • Hercules: The Big Bad role is shared between many different characters at once. Hera (who was Heracles' Arch-Enemy in the myths) is never seen onscreen though her followers serve as Herc's enemies; Alcmene and Megara work together to make Hercules' life a living Hell, but unfortunate circumstances makes them sympathetic and they ultimately redeem themselves towards the end, at the cost of their own lives. Antaeus is responsible for the movie's events to begin with since his rape of Alcmene ended up fathering Hercules and not Zeus, but he serves other villains as The Brute most of the time and he is disposed before the climax. Eurysteus serves as the antagonist near the end, since Hercules is beholden to serve him and perform his labors in penitence for his heinous crimes.
  • Kamen Rider:
    • In Kamen Rider 555, while Kyoji Murakami is the main villain of the series, other characters including Masato Kusaka, Aki Sawada, Kitazaki, Yuji Kiba and the Arch Orphnoch all pose distinct threats at different times.
    • Though Dai-Shocker can be called the Big Bad of Kamen Rider Decade if one were to consider an organization the Big Bad, identifying an individual Big Bad is tricky and depends more on your perspective. Candidates for it include Apollo Geist, who's helming Dai-Shocker's plan to conquer the A.R. Worlds; Narutaki, who opposes Decade and believes him to be the "destroyer of worlds"; Tsukasa Kadoya/Kamen Rider Decade himself, who was the Great Leader of Dai-Shocker until he got Identity Amnesia and abandoned the plan; and Nobuhiko Tsukikage/Shadow Moon, a butler to the Kadoya family who usurps Tsukasa as leader of Dai-Shocker in Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker.
    • Kamen Rider Double initially has a singular Big Bad in Ryubee Sonozaki, though things become more complicated when his daughter Saeko and other villains such as Shinkuro Isaka begin vying for power, as well as the emergence of the mysterious Foundation X, represented by Jun Kazu. At the end of it, Isaka ends up an Arc Villain, Ryubee is dead, Saeko loses her ambitions and Kazu becomes the Final Boss.
    • Kamen Rider OOO has the Greeed, a group of five Homunculi who are the creators of the Yummies and seldom work together (with the exception of Gamel). However, it doesn't take long for Kazari to take center stage in the middle of show and prove himself worse than his fellow Greeed. By the end of the series, the Greeed have all been displaced as Big Bad by human antagonist Kiyoto Maki.
    • Kamen Rider Gaim: Had a few of these from time to time, most notably with the conflict between Yggdrasil and Helheim. The higher-ups of Yggdrasil also qualify between Well-Intentioned Extremist Takatora Kureshima and Social Darwinist Ryoma Sengoku. Furthermore, everyone involved with Helheim (Demushuu, Redyue, Roshuo, and Sagara) also have their own agendas, though the former two are the only outright evil ones, as the latter two are morally grey. Various combinations of these villains competed as Big Bads from time to time, though in the end, none of them became the final Big Bad. The final battle was between The Hero Kouta/Gaim and The Rival Kaito Kumon.
    • Kamen Rider Build starts off with a Big Bad Duumvirate between Night Rogue and Juzaburo Nanba. Not long after their alliance starts to falter, Yoshiko Tajimi, Masakuni Mido and Night Rogue's traitorous cohort Blood Stalk all throw their hats in the ring, leading to a 5-way Ensemble with each of them vying for the power of Pandora's Box.
    • Kamen Rider Zero-One has the Ark and Gai Amatsu/Kamen Rider Thouser. The latter is actually responsible for driving the former to evil as part of his plans and initially comes off as the more dangerous of the two, but the Ark is still treated as a dangerous threat, even moreso as Gai's plans start to fall apart on him.
    • Kamen Rider Saber has a pretty big ensemble that includes the traitorous Kamen Rider Calibur, the three Megid leaders Storious, Legeiel, and Zooous, Reika Shindai of the Sword of Logos' Southern Base and Isaac/Master Logos. Although around halfway through, it becomes apparent that it's really a Big Bad Duumvirate of Isaac and Storious who are manipulating everything else, though they also quality as an Ensemble between each other as both have different goals involving the Almighty Book. The former is a Demiurge Archetype who wants to remake the world with it and torment humans for fun, while the latter is a Satanic Archetype who wants to bring about the end of the events foretold in it by destroying everything.
    • Kamen Rider Geats has a pretty extensive case of this, with Niram, the producer of the Desire Grand Prix, and Beroba, the DGP sponsor behind the Jyamato uprising, being the primary contenders. Additionally, each of Beroba's cohorts on the Jyamato side (Archimedel, Michinaga Azuma and Daichi Isuzu) has their own goals and reasons for working together. The last leg of the show sees the ensemble getting shaken up and several new contenders emerging, with Kekera partnering with Beroba and making his ambitions known, Samas shooting Niramu and usurping his position at the direction of Suel, and Zitt being sent to eliminate Ace.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Adar and Sauron are the main antagonists of Season One, but are at odds with each other for a conflict that happened before the start of the show. Adar hates Sauron for turning the Orcs into his lab rats and Sauron hate Adar for turning on him and murder him.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe TV Shows:
    • The second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a very impressive lineup of antagonists. In the first half alone, we have Daniel Whitehall, "the Doctor" (aka Cal Zabo), General Talbot as a Hero Antagonist, and Grant Ward as a Wild Card. By the second half, Whitehall is dead and SHIELD have reached an understanding with Talbot, but things get more complicated, not less: the Doctor gets subsumed by the Inhumans, led by his wife, Jiaying, a new threat emerges in the form of the "real" SHIELD led by Robert Gonzales, Ward continues to be a Wild Card, and HYDRA's presence is continued to be felt, thanks to Dr. List.
    • The first season of Luke Cage (2016) features four major antagonists: Cottonmouth, Councilwoman Mariah Dillard, Shades, and Diamondback. But since all four of them are normal humans against a superpowered hero, they spend more time in their own plotlines than challenging Luke. Shades barely even interacts with Luke in the course of the season, and Cottonmouth is killed by Mariah halfway through.
    • The first season of Iron Fist (2017) has three major antagonists: of Harold Meachum, Madame Gao, and Bakuto. The latter two are leaders of opposing factions of the Hand in an Enemy Civil War, while Harold is forced by the Hand to run Rand Enterprises on their behalf from behind-the-scenes but is itching to escape their control. Harold is also responsible for killing Danny's parents, making the conflict personal.
  • Nikita:
    • Season 2 is shaping up to this: in addition to the Evil Versus Evil rivalry between the Division and Zetrov (the Big Bads in this case being their respective leaders Amanda and Sergei Semak), there are also the various members of Oversight, The Man Behind the Man to Division (to whom Amanda has become The Starscream). Oh, and former Big Bad Percy — despite his current condition of being locked in a maximum security prison — is still semi-active and plotting against everyone else.
    • Update as of the middle of the season: Oversight — bar one member who pulled a Heel–Face Turn — have all been killed on orders from Percy, who's escaped prison and is plotting revenge. Meanwhile, Amanda is revealed to be in a secret alliance with Semak's Dragon Ari Tasarov; together, they're plotting against both Semak and the protagonists. So in some ways things have gotten simpler, and in some they've gotten even more complicated.
  • Once Upon a Time:
    • The Evil Queen/Regina and Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold. While they've worked together, by the end of the first season they've ended up in a Magnificent Bastard versus Magnificent Bastard tennis match, with all of the good guys in the middle of the fight.
    • Then in the second season, we get Regina's more evil mother Cora and Rumplestiltskin's sworn enemy Captain Hook. They start out as a Big Bad Duumvirate, but Hook is later cast out of it while Cora gets her daughter to join her. And in the last quarter of the season, another Big Bad Duumvirate appears: a pair of Muggles, Greg and Tamara, who are assisted by Hook.
    • Season 4A's main villain is Ingrid, the Snow Queen, with her insane plot to make Elsa and Emma be her new sisters. But while the heroes are dealing with her, they're oblivious to the fact that Rumplestiltskin has fallen back into evil and is working to free himself from his one weakness, his connection to the Dark One's dagger.
    • In Season 4B, we have a rather dizzying ensemble of villains — Rumplestiltskin forging an alliance with the Queens of Darkness, led by Maleficent, but with each member having their own unique agendas. Then it turns out that Rumple has been forced into an alliance of his own with Zelena, who again has their own agenda. And on top of all that, The Author turns out to have a massive God complex, and will work with whoever he has to in order to ruin the heroes' lives.
    • Season 5A has another plethora of villains going at it for their own purposes - Emma herself (the Dark Swan), King Arthur, Zelena yet again, Hook (who was revealed to be a second Dark One), and the first Dark One, Nimue, who ends up being the superior one.
    • Season 6A repeats this yet again with the Evil Queen and Mr. Hyde, although they are both small fish compared to Gideon and the Black Fairy.
    • Season 7 starts with Lady Tremaine/Victoria Belfry as the sole antagonist. Then, her daughter Ivy/Drizella turns out to be even more dangerous than her and she is working with Mother Gothel too. Gothel soon turns out to be even more dangerous than both Tremaines and ends up as the sole Big Bad, though her plans involve forming a coven made from eight dangerous and evil witches. The back half of the season also adds in Doctor Facilier running his own hidden agenda, though he barely does anything of note and along with Gothel's whole coven is killed off just before the two-part Grand Finale, which features Wish Realm!Rumplestiltskin as the Final Boss.
  • Oz has dozens of antagonists all competing at various points for the title of Big Bad, with the most consistent candidates being Governor Devlin, Schillinger, and Adebisi.
  • Penny Dreadful reveals that, at the core of its Myth Arc is a rivalry between two Fallen Angels — Lucifer and his brother, who became the first vampire. Between the two of them, most of the antagonism of the series can be drawn to one or the other. Though that said, the number of plotlines the series has means they're are a few unique antagonists:
  • Person of Interest: Straddles the line between this trope and a Rogues Gallery. Occasionally multiple villains will show up in a single episode.
  • Done on occasion in Power Rangers, although not as often as the "one after another" format when there's more than one Big Bad.
  • Revolution: So the pilot of the first season starts off with General Sebastian Monroe of the Monroe Republic as the Big Bad. Then there's Randall Flynn popping in and out, before he teams up with Monroe in episode 11. Tom Neville started out as Monroe's loyal dragon, until he had to run off to save his neck in episode 13. By the first season finale, Tom Neville takes charge of the Monroe Republic via a coup, Monroe is on the run from said coup, Randall succeeded in his mission and killed himself afterward, and now the American government Randall's been working for is coming back to retake what's theirs.
  • The Secret Circle: So far, there's at least both Charles and Dawn — who often seem on the verge of stabbing each other in the back — and the witch hunters (especially Eben), neither of whom really seem to know about each other. There's also the threat of demons, along with anything else that may come up. Big Bad Duumvirate: John Blackwell and Eben are both the real Big Bad in the season finale.
  • The Shannara Chronicles: Season 2 has two Big Bads: The Warlock Lord, who is the leader of the next wave of the demonic forces, and General Riga, a fanatic who intends to kill all magic users. Though the Warlock Lord spends about the first half of the season dead and Bandon plans to revive him as his master, but shortly after revival, the Warlock Lord kills Riga two episodes before the season finale, ultimately being the bigger threat.
  • Sharpe has one of these in Sharpe’s Enemy. The most immediate threat is a small army of deserters led by “Marshal” Pot-au-Feu and Sociopathic Soldier Obadiah Hakeswill, whose presence threatens the morale of the British Army; they’ve also captured the wife of a British aristocrat and the wife of a French colonel. The other is a French force advised by Major Pierre Ducos, whose orders are to take the fort that the deserters are holed up in as a funneling point to retake Portugal. Sharpe and his Chosen Men are supposed to rescue the women, eliminate the deserters and keep the French from taking the fort.
  • Smallville loves this trope. While the first three seasons had Lionel Luthor as a more or less consistent Big Bad, later ones got much more iffy and complicated, often featuring one human antagonist, and a superpowered one:
    • Season 4 had Lionel competing with Genevieve Teague and Margaret Isobel Thoreaux for control of the Stones of Power.
    • Season 5 had Lex Luthor up to no good while Brainiac attempted to free General Zod.
    • Season 6 had Lex continue his villainy amidst the Phantom Zone prisoners running amok, culminating with Bizarro's debut.
    • Season 7, had Brainiac and Lex Luthor as the primary antagonists, the former out to end the world, the latter attempting to find out Clark's secret no matter what the cost.
    • Season 8 was probably the most complicated, with Brainiac back and firmly in Omnicidal Maniac territory, while new villains Tess Mercer and Doomsday entered the scenario, with Lex and Faora as their respective Men behind the Men. One would expect that one of The Chessmasters would win out, but when the dust settles it's Doomsday and his host, Davis, who are the last villain standing, serving as the main emotional and physical threat as the season draws to a close.
    • In Season 9, Zod and Checkmate, led by Amanda Waller and Maxwell Lord, competed with one another and the main cast for control of the metahumans and the world.
    • Finally, Season 10 would appear to have Darkseid as the Big Bad, with Rick Flag and the Suicide Squad trying to take down the government and the Justice League, Slade Wilson and the Vigilante Registration Agency (VRA) trying to force all heroes onto the government payroll, and Alexander Luthor, Earth-2 Lionel, and the real Lex all waiting in the wings. It ends up subverted though, as Slade is a Disc-One Final Boss corrupted by Darkseid himself, and the others are just Big Bad Wannabes when compared to the God of Evil that is The Great Lord of the Dark.
  • The Sopranos: Season 2 had Richie Aprile and Big Pussy. Upon being released from prison, Richie actively undermines Tony's authority as boss of the DiMeo crime family and ultimately moves to have him killed towards the end of the story arc. However, he is killed by Janice in the season's penultimate episode before his plans come to fruition. As for Pussy, his likable persona is revealed as a facade masking his bitterness towards Tony and his crew, for whom he harbors few loyalties. He's also the true FBI informant.
  • Squid Game: While the Host is the true Big Bad of the series, he leaves the Front Man in charge of overseeing the games. On the other side of things is Jang Deok-su, who's the most antagonistic of the games' contestants and therefore the most direct threat to Gi-hun and his allies, at least before he bites it in the seventh episode.
  • Stargate SG-1:
    • This series almost always has one single Big Bad whom SG-1 has to contend with. In the later part of Season 8, however, they are simultaneously faced with two Galactic Conquerors: the Goa'uld System Lord Anubis, an immortal Energy Being who is leading the combined Goa'uld forces behind the scenes with Ba'al as a puppet, and Replicator Carter, the humanoid leader of the Replicators, a Horde of Alien Locusts. The Replicators proceed to invade the Milky Way to consume everything as the two evil factions duke it out among each other, while SG-1 and the Free Jaffa try to take Dakara to free the Goa'uld-dominated worlds. Anubis wants to use a weapon on the planet to wipe out all life, while RepliCarter tries to find a way to destroy Anubis and rule herself.
    • Leaving the Post-Script Season situation: Since Anubis vs. Replicators vs. good guys ends with the Replicators gone and Goa'uld severely weakened, but Baal as leader of The Remnant and a very serious threat in his own right we have the new villains Ori in the main villain seat. Instead of a Grand Finale, SG-1 ends with two DTV movies: one devoted to the last round with the Ori and one devoted to the last round with Baal.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: By the final arc, Sisko is having to deal with the entirely separate threads of the Dominion and their allies on one hand and Dukat and the Pah-Wraiths on the other.
  • Season 1 of Stranger Things has the Demogorgon and Dr. Martin Brenner. The Demogorgon is responsible for Will Byers' disappearance while Brenner heads the Government Conspiracy to cover it up, and is also responsible for opening the portal to the Upside-Down that allowed the Demogorgon to enter our world in the first place.
  • Supernatural tended to have more or less consistent Big Bads for its first four seasons, and arguably the fifth, then started adding more and more central villains in subsequent seasons all competing for the limelight. Only Season 7 once again had a single Big Bad, the rest have at least two:
    • In Season 5, Lucifer is freed from his Cage, and starts the Apocalypse. He wants to wipe out all humans, as well as the demons, and turn the Earth into his own personal playground, considering it a last testament of God's work. On the other side of this are the forces of Heaven, led by the Archangel Michael. While Michael is the Lesser of Two Evils between the two, he still intends to destroy part of humanity as a "necessary sacrifice" for defeating the forces of Hell and bringing about Paradise on Earth. The Winchesters finds them both despicable, and strive to find another way to beat the devil. In the end, Lucifer and Michael both get trapped in the Cage. Michael makes so few appearances that Lucifer is essentially the sole Big Bad, though.
    • Season 6 takes it even further, featuring four separate Big Bads. Early on in the season, to start with, we have Crowley — the new King of Hell — who wants to find Purgatory and take control of its souls, and the Archangel Raphael, who is trying to take control of Heaven and restart the Apocalypse. Then, midway through the season, we meet Eve, the "Mother of All", who wants to overrun the world with her "children". And then, a few episodes before the season finale, we find out that Castiel has been in a tentative alliance with Crowley to find Purgatory so that he can defeat Raphael and prevent his plans from coming to fruition.

      Eve is killed about the same time we find out about Castiel and Crowley's alliance, so that knocks her out of the competition. This all comes to a head in the season finale, where Castiel cuts Crowley out of the deal; Crowley retaliates by teaming up with Raphael, only for Castiel to Out-Gambit them both. He absorbs the souls of Purgatory, kills Raphael, and sends Crowley running, all before proclaiming himself the new God.
    • Season 8 has the Winchesters fighting both Crowley and the angel Naomi — the latter indirectly most of the season through her Manchurian Agent Castiel — for control of the Word of God tablets. Abaddon gets in on the act near the end of the season as a potential Starscream for Crowley while Naomi has a Heel Realization in the finale, only to be killed by Metatron, who casts a spell to banish all angels from Heaven.
    • Season 9 builds on the previous season's Ensemble as it stood at the end of the season: Bartholomew and Malachi emerge as the leaders of the civil war amongst the fallen angels, with Metatron — now in full A God Am I mode — also recruiting in order to secure his own position as sole ruler of Heaven. Meanwhile, Abbadon is continuing to try and usurp Crowley's position as ruler of hell, while Crowley himself is now a Wild Card. In something of a subversion, Bartholomew is impaled by Cas in his second appearance while Malachi doesn't get a second appearance, being Killed Offscreen by Gadreel, so that helps narrow things down. Abaddon also dies midway through the season, leaving Metatron as sole Big Bad.
    • Season 10 lacks a central antagonist. The season sets up a roster of characters who could fill the role, including Metatron, Crowley, Rowena, Dean under the influence of the Mark of Cain, and Sam, having jumped off the slippery slope in an attempt to cure his brother. However, by the season finale, Metatron gets Brought Down to Normal and subsequently becomes totally irrelevant, and Crowley and Rowena have teamed up with Sam to cure Dean of the Mark, leaving the true Big Bad Ensemble as Sam and Dean Winchester themselves.
    • The first half of Season 11 seems to return to form with The Darkness as sole Big Bad, but then midway through, Lucifer returned, setting him up as a second major threat. Until he's forced to ally with the Winchesters.
    • Season 12 has both Lucifer and the British Men of Letters (of which Ketch most directly interacts with Sam and Dean, but Doctor Hess is the leader of their operations in America) as the main antagonists, though Lucifer spends much of the season imprisoned by Crowley. The British Men of Letters seem to be the bigger focus, but they are taken down in the penultimate episode, where the season finale focuses on Lucifer.
    • Season 13 once again gives us an assortment of main bad guys with both Lucifer and the Prince of Hell Asmodeus trying to find Lucifer's half-archangel son Jack to harness his power, as well as an Alternate Universe version of the Archangel Michael trying to break into the main reality. However, Lucifer is soon depowered by Michael, forcing him into another Enemy Mine with the heroes. At least until the season finale (by which point Asmodeus has been killed), when he regains his power, thus switching the Enemy Mine over to Michael.
    • Season 14 starts off with the Archangel Michael as the main villain, but he gets disposed off halfway through by Jack, who absorbs his powers, then starts Slowly Slipping Into Evil and it seems like he'll become a massive threat in his own right. Meanwhile, Lucifer's former vessel Nick tries to revive the dead Fallen Angel, only to be stopped at the last second by Jack. Then the finale reveals that God was manipulating EVERYBODY all along, and when the Winchesters refuse to play his games anymore, he decides to cause The End of the World as We Know It.
    • Season 15, for the most part, has God as the central villain and Final Boss of the entire series as he proceeds to tear down the Multiverse bit by bit, but Death is eventually revealed to be plotting to become the new God after seemingly entering into an Enemy Mine with the Winchesters. Death is disposed of before the Grand Finale, leaving only God to deal with. God also resurrects Lucifer one final time, but he's been firmly Demoted to Dragon.
  • In Tensou Sentai Goseiger, the Goseigers fight three villainous factions: Universal Annihilation Army Warstar, Earth Condemnation Group Yuumajuu, and Machine Onslaught Empire Matrintis (Collectively referred to as "Evil Spirits"). Unlike the Negative Syndicates from Boukenger, the Goseigers fight those evil factions in succession, rather than at the same time. It's eventually revealed that Buredoran/Brajira, who served all three factions and supplied them with Bibi Soldiers and Bibi Bugs, was The Mastermind behind all three groups, and he becomes the last enemy the Goseigers fights.
  • Tokusou Robo Janperson starts off with the Guild organization as the sole Big Bad for the first two episodes. After they're taken out, they get replaced by a three-way ensemble each with their own agenda - George Makabe (the leader of Neo-Guild who wants to replace humans with robots), Ryuzaburo Tatewaki (a Laughably Evil Corrupt Corporate Executive who wants to become Japan's top crime boss simply because he can), and Reiko Ayanokouji (the head of the Super Science Network, a group which uses science to commit crimes).
  • Twin Peaks in its first season has Laura Plamer's killer Leland/BOB and Ben Horne. After the Laura Palmer mystery is solved the Big Bad Ensemble shifts to Jean Renault, Windom Earle and then finally BOB again.
  • The Umbrella Academy: As two arcs of the comics are adapted together, first season of the show has two Big Bads. The Handler is a high-tier member of The Commission and the boss of Hazel and Cha-Cha, who sends them after Five to cause the end of the world. Harold Jenkins is the sociopath whose actions will cause the end of the world. Unusually, while The Handler is working to ensure Harold's plans follow along, Harold has no idea he is receiving such help and never learns about The Commission. In fact, he never even learns about the end of the world, being killed by Vanya, who is the true catalyst for the apocalypse and usurps his position in the finale. There's no indication that Harold intended her to kill anyone but the Umbrella Academy.

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