Replacement Scrappy / Live-Action TV

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• Our Miss Brooks: Gene Talbot replaced Phillip Boynton as Connies' Love Interest in the last season of the television series. Mr. Boynton ended up returning by the end of the season, and marries Connie in The Movie Grand Finale.
• 24:
  • CTU was decommissioned in between seasons six and seven with the FBI office taking the agency's place as the main government group that Jack worked with to stop the threat of the Day. Only problem? The FBI did really little to actually establish itself as being that different from CTU and outside Renee Walker the agents themselves weren't particularly memorable, leading fan reaction to be pretty poor. CTU was then brought back into the picture for the final season.
  • Also during Season 7, the entire season prior had been building up Jonas Hodges as the main villain, and introduced him halfway through it. Thanks in particular to Jon Voight's incredibly hammy yet charismatic performance, Hodges quickly became well received, but only six episodes later his plot was foiled and he was removed from action while the real season 7 villain Alan Wilson revealed himself. As opposed to Hodges, Wilson had little-to-no personality, the fact that he was introduced so late into the season didn't help matters and the attempt to make him more of a credible threat by revealing he was also the real mastermind behind all of the fifth season's events near the end was more controversial than anything else.
  • Eric Carter ended up becoming this in sequel series 24: Legacy. Taking over as the protagonist from a beloved character like Jack Bauer already had him facing an uphill battle with the fandom, but as the season went on, many people ended up finding him to be a rather uninteresting and just couldn't get their attention. It didn't help that it also introduced Rebecca Ingram, whom many people ended up feeling was a far more fitting replacement to Jack, only to have her die Taking the Bullet for Eric in the finale.
• America's Funniest Home Videos went through this when Bob Saget was replaced with John Fugelsang in 1998 and an assistant, Daisy Fuentes, was added for little more than eye candy. Most fans of the series consider the Fugelsang era the show's nadir. The show then limped along for a while as a "special" set of episodes with rotating hosts, before Tom Bergeron joined in 2001 and the show became watchable again.
• Dr. Billy Peele as a replacement for Dr. Matt Crower in American Gothic (1995). The showrunners have since gone on record that this was down to Executive Meddling by people at the network who believed that Matt wasn't a "strong, heroic" (i.e. macho asshole) antagonist for Lucas, failing to realize that the main conflict was over Caleb's moral development rather than any specific situation and that the kindly, gentle Matt was meant to be a demonstration that you can't fight moral corruption with aggression. This led to a spectacularly malicious plot towards the end of the show where Billy was led to believe that he was bringing Selena to a High-Heel–Face Turn only to discover that she was setting him up as a patsy for Lucas's murder. When even the writers make it clear that they think you're a Scrappy...
• The Andy Griffith Show: When Don Knotts, the actor who played Barney Fife, left the show after the fifth season, he was replaced by comedian Jack Burns, who played a new deputy named Warren Ferguson. Warren, however, didn't have an ounce of what made Barney so likable and funny and had poor chemistry with Andy, and the character only lasted eleven episodes. Warren’s boring and unfunny presence is often pointed out as one of the reasons the series entered Seasonal Rot after the fifth season.
• The numerous changes on Are You Being Served? resulted in a few Replacement Scrappy cases. Many fans despise Mr. Grainger's first replacement, Mr. Tebbs, even though cast members and numerous other fans have said that he did a brilliant job. More serious was Mr. Spooner's replacement of popular Mr. Lucas after the seventh series, though in the fans' defense, Mr. Spooner's personality was never developed beyond rudeness. Even more-hated was Old Mr. Grace for Young Mr. Grace, which was justifiable since it was tackily executed by pasting the middle-aged Kenneth Waller with loads of old-age makeup.
  • The only time this was averted in the series was the affable snarker Mr. Harman was much more popular than the Jerkass Mr. Mash.
• Arrowverse:
  • Arrow:
    • Laurel Lance. Her younger sister Sara was popular in the role of The Canary for having a complex story and being true to the spirit of Black Canary. When she is killed early in Season 3, Laurel took over the role in Sara’s honor. The change didn’t go over well at first because Laurel was a Base-Breaking Character at best to The Scrappy at worst in the previous two seasons for her poor characterization and her lack of fight experience didn’t help. However, Laurel’s character vastly improved since she became Black Canary. Becoming much warmer and showing more determination in the role. Fans began to warm up to Laurel in the role and found her growth in Season 3 to be a major bright spot in an otherwise mediocre season. So much so that come Season 4 which saw Laurel killed by Damien Darhk, the fans were completely outrage and took their rage to the internet on a near unseen level. The fans went from hating Laurel to begging her to return from the dead. In a funny sense, Laurel becoming a Replacement Scrappy actually helped her get Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
    • Season 5 sees all of the Team Arrow members apart from Oliver and Felicity being replaced with brand new people (Except for Curtis, who was introduced last season), which brought in many complaints that they are not as likeable as the original Team Arrow. It doesn't help that the writers basically threw away the family dynamic that many fans like in favor of something you could compare to a pair of teachers and a misbehaving class.
    • Tina Boland/Dinah Drake immediately became this after going against fan opinion and ditching four iterations of the Black Canary, as well as ignoring the possibility of Laurel's actual Earth-2 Doppelganger, Black Siren being reformed into such, therefore giving Kate Cassidy the shaft once again. Tina has been seen as an inferior Black Canary in comparison to Laurel and Sara. It doesn't help that all the Character Shilling she's received in her first two episodes alone could rival Felicity's. Also not helping her case are: a.) Rory Regan, the only popular of the above mentioned Season 5 recruits, getting the shaft once Tina is introduced, and b.) There's already an established Dinah Drake introduced since then first season (played by Alex Kingston), meaning that this "Dinah" serves as an inferior replacement for not one, not two, but four characters.
  • The Flash (2014):
    • Eobard Thawne, also known as the Reverse Flash, was considered a very compelling villain due to his affinity for long-term strategy, ability to defeat The Hero multiple times over, and having enough room in his character for Alternative Character Interpretation. He falls victim to a Ret-Gone at the end of Season One, however, and is replaced as the Big Bad by Zoom. Zoom received a fraction of the praise Thawne got, in part due to his mimicking Thawne's plan of posing as a mentor to the Flash and killing his family members, though eventually he got Vindicated by History and is now considered the best villain to appear on the show after Thawne (with their collective seasons being considered the golden age of the show in general). The following speedster Big Bad, Savitar, ended up being considered this for both of them, and his season is generally considered to be when the Seasonal Rot began to settle in for real.
    • H.R. had a lukewarm reception at first for being merely an excuse to still have Tom Cavanagh on the series and being inferior to Harry Wells. He eventually got Rescued from the Scrappy Heap after his Heroic Sacrifice to save Iris from Savitar. Harry was brought back for Season Four, but was then written out at the end of the season. That was when they brought in Sherloque Wells, who is by far the most hated Wells thus far, mostly because he doesn't have much of a character outside of being a Sherlock Holmes-parody.
    • The New Rogues, Mirror Master and the Top, to The Rogues, Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Golden Glider. The New Rogues are far less menacing and lack the charm of the original Rogues, which is why they were never brought back after Season 3, the season they debuted in. Both were eventually replaced by the Young Rogues in Season 5, who ended up being much more liked than the New Rogues, with at least two members becoming recurring antagonists in Season 6.
    • Ralph Dibny to Wally West. Wally's fans say that the Ralph's slot could have been occupied by Wally, who could have had the Character Development and usage he needed. Ralph is put as a temporary lead hero while Barry is imprisoned, despite being inexperienced. However after his initial polarizing role in season 4, he was quickly Rescued from the Scrappy Heap during Season 5, after an entire season's worth of Character Development paid off, having him mature into a noble and valiant Superhero, and Took a Level in Badass, as well as his skills as a PI being much more displayed, and has become one of the more beloved characters of the Arrowverse.
• Ben Mankiewicz has managed to be the replacement scrappy on no less than three different projects: replacing Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper on At The Movies, subbing for Cenk on The Young Turks and taking over afternoon introductions for Robert Osborne (while Osborne still does evenings) on Turner Classic Movies. The general opinion of all three happens to be that he's not as good as the originals.
• The Avengers: Tara King (Linda Thorson) replaced Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) in 1968, and was (and remains) much less popular, though she has her fandom.
• Babylon 5's Elizabeth Lochley was doomed to be disliked, as she was the replacement for the widely beloved Susan Ivanova. Combined with her short-lived past marriage to Sheridan being seen as an implausible piece of melodrama that had never been so much as hinted at before, and the fact that Season 5 is considered the show's weakest, she couldn't really avoid it. It didn't help that Ivanova had been expected to continue on to season 5 as the new station commander so Lochley was going through storylines that had almost certainly been written for Ivanova. She became much more interesting in the spin-off Crusade where no other main characters were carried over from Babylon 5 and she had a chance to become her own character rather than a suspiciously similar substitute.
• Tory Foster in Battlestar Galactica was regarded as this when she replaced Billy Keikeya as President Laura Roslin's aide after he got killed in a terrorist attack.
  • There are several shades to the story, though: Part of the reason why Tory was considered a scrappy was because Billy was seen as a very nice guy and a son figure for Roslin. On the other hand, some people took a liking for Tory precisely because she seemed cold and ruthless. So, she could have gone both ways. Unfortunately, bad writing and the lack of Character Development ruined her. She got barely any exposition on her darker motivations, her relationship with the rest of the Final Five Cylons or her past in the Twelve Colonies.
• The opinion of the majority of Beakman's World fans who don't like Liza and Phoebe is summed up in the fact that they're not Josie. Especially Phoebe, who gets the double stigma of not being Josie or Liza. That, and the fact that: 1) Phoebe was more of a Jerkass towards Lester than the other two, and 2) Phoebe was more of a smart-ass than the other two.
• While it was hardly her fault, there was little chance of Beauty and the Beast (1987) continuing on with Jo Anderon as the new Beauty after Katherine Chancellor's death, and the ending of the all important romance between her and Vincent, and Linda Hamilton's highly publicized exit, due to her contractual obligation towards Terminator 2: Judgment Day. That said, it's very difficult to find anyone who thoroughly enjoyed the character of Diane Bennett.
• At the beginning of Season 5 of Becker, Reggie (played by Terry Farrell) suddenly left and the diner was taken over by Chris (Nancy Travis).
• None of the new characters introduced in the third and fourth seasons of Blake's 7 are especially popular (although Dayna has the biggest fanbase). Tarrant, however, is the one who gets real hatred from large parts of the fanbase, especially Avon fans, due to his constant in-canon attempts to take over group leadership from Avon despite lacking the abilities required, and out-of-canon suspicions that he was created as Mr. Fanservice despite most of the female fanbase thinking that Avon was already filling that role quite well.
• Blue Heelers made the shocking move at the beginning of the seventh season to kill off the much beloved Maggie, and knowing they couldn't hope to match her popularity, the writers didn't try to. Instead, her replacement was the standoffish Tess, who lasted four seasons before Flanderization set in and she was written out for Susie.
  • Aside from that the show generally did well in averting the Replacement Scrappy. After Wayne's death he was replaced by Dash and was an instant success. Then when she left Jo came in as a popular character. Ditto Jack after Adam left. Those who disliked the character however very much cheered his replacement, Jonesy.
• Whenever Walt gets a new cooking partner to replace Jesse in Breaking Bad, it becomes an In-Universe example.
  • Gale Boetticher is assigned to be Walt's partner while he working under Gus, due to Gus thinking Jesse is too unreliable. He's extremely nice and intelligent, but Walt needs to keep Jesse from testifying against Hank, so he claims Gale is this to bring Jesse back.
  • Short after this, Gus begins to see Walt as a Replacement Scrappy for Gale, since Gale was humble, loyal, easily controlled, and had no plans for rising in rank beyond Gus's cook; all qualities Walt lacked. After realizing Walt was too much of a wild card, Gus took this trope in as dark a direction as he could by waiting until Gale could replicate Walt's cooking technique... then he could safely have Walt put to death.
  • Later in the series we're introduced to Todd, who Walt uses to replace Jesse after the latter officially quits. Todd is friendly and respectful to Walt and has no trouble with criminal actions, all of which is in direct contrast with Jesse, who would often butt heads and retired due to growing disgusted with his criminal actions. Again, Walt finds his relationship with Todd rather boring without the level of manipulation and control he had over Jesse, and is one of the many reasons he decides to retire from cooking himself. It's not helped that, while Jesse was a surprisingly bright student once approached correctly, Todd is a poor learner and winds up being a rather poor cooking partner.
• The Brittas Empire had the departing Laura replaced with Penny for Series 6. Penny is despised by fans for replacing Laura, who was one of the show's most well-rounded and popular characters. The fact that she was far bitchier and incredibly stuck-up didn't help her popularity either. The writers likely caught on to this, as she vanished from the series without explanation in Series 7.
• Buffyverse:
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Willow's season seven girlfriend Kennedy was not well-received by fans, and not just because of her replacing Tara. First off, introducing a new love interest for Willow only half a year after Tara's death was questioned; secondly, she came across as bratty, egotistical and selfish: she lied to get Willow to date her, never behaved sensitively re: the Tara issue, talked about nothing other than herself and being gay, etc. She also indirectly helped cause the suicide of one of the Potentials with her Drill Sergeant Nasty act; it was the First Evil that actually caused it, but Kennedy at least scores an assist (although given that Buffy's response was a "eulogy" about how pathetic the girl was, she probably wasn't alone in that). In the Season 8 comics, the writers finally wised up and had Willow break up with her. She was actually voted the most annoying TV character of 2002-2003 in a couple polls and was included on the list of most annoying TV characters ever by EW. The dislike wasn't universal however: Some reviewers at the time considered Kennedy one of the more interesting and likable aspects of the Potentials storyline, while the last volume of the unlicensed guide book Slayer provided a more even-handed look at Willow and Kennedy's relationship while acknowledging the flaws that caused many fans to reject it.
    • Riley, Buffy's new beau after Angel was Put on a Bus for his own Spin-Off.
  • Angel:
    • Wesley joined the cast right after Doyle died (although he'd been introduced as a recurring character on Buffy a season before the show Angel or character Doyle existed). Doyle's popularity with fans, combined with the fact that fans weren't exactly eager for Wesley to come back, led to some serious anti-Wesley backlash. There was even a border-line lamp-shading moment where Wesley is called by Doyle's name accidentally and everyone suddenly feels very awkward. By the end of the season, however, he was generally accepted by fans and characters alike.
    • Spike's abrupt inclusion into the main cast, clearly a replacement for the similarly blunt Cordelia, was met with strong reactions with many of the longtime fans. After the overwhelmingly negative reception for the storyline that put Cordelia in the coma (that led to her exclusion from the main billing), many saw this as the last nail in the coffin for the series, fearing that Spike had only been brought in so that his fans would come over from Buffy and that all the plots would end up being about him. This, however, wasn't a general consensus among fans, as some enjoyed Spike's role in the series, and the worst fears of him taking over the show weren't realized.
    • Gavin Park was seen as an inferior replacement for Lindsay McDonald as Lilah Morgan's rival at evil law firm Wolfram & Hart due to how smug and incompetent he was and just not being as effective a foil for Lilah as his predecessor.
    • In season five the simpering Eve replaced the vastly superior Lilah, to much dismay from the fans. She was quickly replaced by Marcus Hamilton, who made no attempt to act as an ersatz-Lilah. Cordelia lampshades this trope in "You're Welcome", referring to Eve as "Lilah Jr."
• In-story, one of the most cringe-inducing part of the Mexican telenovela Carrusel was when a bunch of third-graders hostilized their sweet, clever and well-intentioned new teacher for just replacing their Team Mom of a teacher. It was very petty from them, very badly-acted, and the old janitor of the school, usually the gentlest person in the world, bitched the brats out for treating the poor girl like crap.
• Castle: Captain Roy Montgomery was replaced with Gates, who initially seemed pointlessly hostile towards Castle, behaved abrasively towards everybody, and to many fans seemed more two-dimensional and much less interesting. She got better.
• When Chappelle's Show ended prematurely after Dave's Creator Breakdown, Comedy Central quickly filled his time slot with Mind of Mencia, another show anchored by a comedian specializing in racial humor. On the first episode Mencia even tries to reject the label of being "A Hispanic Dave Chappelle". Chappelle fans sure went ape-shit over this one. It helps that the show was panned by critics and the comedy community on its own (lack of) merits.
• When a bitter Kate Jackson left after the third season of the popular female detectives show Charlie's Angels, the producers scrambled for a replacement for everybody's favorite "Smart Angel." Enter Shelley Hack, who for many Angels viewers practically defines the trope in every sense of the word. Hack portrayed the glamorous Tiffany Welles, a cop from Boston who spoke Latin, and was always fashionable. Unfortunately, Hack wasn't given much to do during her tenure on the fourth season, simply because the writers could not seem to come up with anything for her to do, and as such, she was scarcely seen doing anything of note during the season. Because of this, Kris Munroe was given the brunt of most of the storylines, with the occasional Kelly Garrett story thrown in, particularly in the season finale. Viewership sank as a result, and Hack was widely blamed for the ratings drop, even though she herself had nothing to do with it, it was in actuality the writers whom were to blame. Hack was immediately fired from the show, and the character of Tiffany Welles was sent back to Boston. Hack's replacement for the fifth and final season was Tanya Roberts as street smart model Julie Rogers. Though Roberts was received well by critics, she wasn't enough to save the show from cancellation.
• Charmed:
  • Paige is a notable aversion. True she was brought onto the show to replace Prue but she was fleshed out into a completely different character than Prue and is quite popular among fans. Most people who say they prefer the episodes with Prue and dislike the later seasons don't have a problem with Paige herself but rather the difference in tone (i.e. that the series got fluffier).
  • Dan from season 2 is a straight example. Fans didn't take to the attempt to replace Leo with him and he was dropped after one season.
  • In season 8, one of the biggest complaints of what is considered the most polarizing season of the show was the introduction of Coop, Phoebe's love interest and eventual husband, after literally putting Leo in Stasis to introduce him. The fact that Coop was introduced within 7 episodes to the end of the series, and their romance didn't start until at least his second episode after introduction, people found it rather hard to believe him as Phoebe's True Love after the wildly popular rollercoaster relationship she shared with Cole Turner. It especially became clear that the writers just wanted to have Phoebe married by the end of the series, when it had to be outright stated exposition from Chris and Wyatt that Coop was the love of her life.
  • Paige's same love interest Henry was likewise introduced around the same time as Coop, but get a little less hate other than for Leo and Daryll being Put on a Bus to accommodate him (the network both demanded new faces and cut the budget, essentially forcing Leo to be written out for ten episodes, and Daryll and his family being stated that they moved to the east coast). He and Paige get together very quick, but some are a little more receptive to it given the chemistry between Ivan Sergei and Rose McGowan.
• Cheers: When Shelley Long left the show at the end of the Fifth Season—and, therefore, Diane left Boston—the show brought in Rebecca. The writers made it a point to make Rebecca the exact opposite of Diane in nearly every single way: Self-centered and shallow (where Diane was kindhearted and caring), an obsessive gold-digger (where Diane had rejected her family inheritance to seek her own way), and ultimately, emotionally unstable (where Diane's problem was over-thinking things). (Oh, and Rebecca was brunette and voluptuous as opposed to the blonde and slender Diane.) Fan reaction was pretty icy, at first—until the writers stopped trying to make her an Ice Queen Straight Man to Sam and more of a Nervous Wreck Butt-Monkey (seemingly as though to provide catharsis for the fans of Diane).
• Chico and the Man: Raul (Gabriel Melgar), the 14-year-old "chico." Necessitated after the death of Freddie Prinze, the actor who played Chico, in 1977 ... and for NBC to continue a series that was still doing relatively well.
• Oliver (Richard Mylan) replacing Jeff on Coupling when Richard Coyle would not return for a fourth series.
• Rossi started out as one in Criminal Minds, but got better. However, JJ's replacement Ashley Seaver plays this out painfully straight.
• Edward Tudor-Pole replacing Richard O'Brien as the presenter of The Crystal Maze.
• CSI: When Grissom was replaced by Langston. Many people believe that Langston was a replacement for Grissom, since Langston showed up right after Grissom left. However, while Catherine moved up to fill Grissom's spot in the unit's hierarchy, and Langston was starting at the bottom, he was still heavily promoted as the new "face" of the show and was assigned responsibilities more befitting a shift administrator like Grissom despite being a rookie. It probably didn't help that a lot of people watched the show and thought "Why is Morpheus on CSI?"
• Jo Danville from CSI: NY has gained some hate for replacing popular character Stella and being seen as "flirting" with Mac Taylor.
• Dad's Army replaced the character of Walker with Private Cheeseman after the sudden death of James Beck, who played Walker. Cheeseman became unpopular both with viewers and fellow cast members (John Laurie is on record as saying that he felt both the character and actor were fast approaching Spotlight-Stealing Squad status) and was written out at the start of the next series.
• Degrassi has a bit of this due to a refocus of the show. As a Long Runner set in a High School they had to either move up to college episodes or lose the older members of the cast... they eventually decided on the latter dropping most of the old cast and bringing in a bunch of new young cast members. Between Season 8 being a very weak season and the loss of so many fan favorites, the new cast was not taken well. Most have grown into their own but several never got past this and were dropped from the show. Blue and Leia being the poster children for this issue.
• In The Defenders (2017), we have Murakami for Nobu. In both seasons of Daredevil (2015), Nobu was an intimidating and dangerous villain who nearly killed Matt and actually killed Elektra. Not to mention, had very memorable fights scenes. By comparison, Murakami is more bland and less impressive, and frequently either losing or needing the help of other Hand fighters to pose a threat to any of the main characters.
• Doctor Who:
  • Plenty of people have commented on the disappointment and sense of loss felt around a regeneration from one Doctor to another; even though it's basically the same character, the changing actors makes it easy to feel that "your" Doctor is gone and has been replaced by some interloper instead. Fortunately for the show, for the most part each Doctor has managed to put their own stamp on the show and maintain the fans of the previous Doctor (or at least pick up some new ones). Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Matt Smith in particular all suffered from powerful groups in fandom that hated them for not being Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker and David Tennant respectively. There are letters pages in newspapers from the 1960s in which members of the public express outrage at Patrick Troughton for taking over as the Doctor from the beloved William Hartnell, ruining the show forever; the public outcry over Hartnell's leaving got so extreme that Michael Craze and Anneke Wills (who played the First/Second Doctor's companions Ben and Polly), as a Practical Joke, came to work wearing printed t-shirts that read "COME BACK BILL HARTNELL ALL IS FORGIVEN." Apparently, Patrick Troughton didn't see the funny side and was just hurt by it, making Anneke feel awful.
    • Practically every new Doctor has gotten this to some degree. Colin Baker took a lot of undeserved blame for the show's dip in production values and story content, plus a much more violent, dark tone (not to mention that outfit). Sylvester McCoy took heat for being too silly (at first), Paul McGann initially got blamed for the Doctor-as-half-human-amnesiac of the film, Christopher Eccleston was deemed an interloper because he wasn't Paul McGann (who never got to have his own series) and David Tennant initially was dismissed by classic viewers due to his age. Peter Capaldi was similarly dissed, but because he was thought too old, rather than too young (the public was now used to a young Doctor). Retrospect has corrected most of these first impressions.
    • Most of the newspapers in 1975 levelled much abuse at Tom Baker for not being Jon Pertwee, with one critic for The Daily Mail suggesting that by casting a more comical Doctor than Jon Pertwee (which wasn't hard — he is one of the most serious Doctors of the lot) the show was becoming a parody of itself (comparing him to Harpo Marx's character in Horse Feathers), and one critic for The Sun calling him "wet" in comparison to Pertwee (who played his character as an Action Hero). Tom Baker defended himself as best as he could in an interview with the Mail, explaining that he wasn't trying to play the Doctor as a comedy character at all, but as someone who was naturally funny due to his alienness, and that he wanted to be a more flamboyant and pacifistic character than Pertwee, to which the interviewer responded "I hope so!" Consider that this is an actor who has been seriously regarded as the best Doctor ever for almost forty years.
    • In the "Hidden Hinchcliffe" segment on the "Planet of Evil" DVD, Philip Hinchcliffe (who produced an era often considered to be the highest point of the Classic series) complains that every single time he got an audience report, while Tom Baker's performance was generally praised or criticised for sensible reasons, there would always be a tiny minority who would bash everything he did because "Jon Pertwee was better".
    • Commented on by the show itself more than once and with various levels of subtlety, but most infamously at the end of Colin Baker's first story:
      The Sixth Doctor: And I suggest, Peri, that you wait a little before criticizing my new persona. You may well find it isn't quite as disagreeable as you think. Whatever else happens, I am the Doctor... whether you like it or not.
    • In the case of Matt Smith replacing David Tennant, it didn't help that the switch coincided with a change in showrunners, from Russell T. Davies (who was the driving force behind the show's revival) to Steven Moffat, who wrote some of the most acclaimed episodes of his predecessor's era but quickly became criticized for changes in the show's tone and for being more interested in plotting than characterization compared to Davies (the latter, ironically, is sometimes why detractors of Davies praise Moffat). Fairly often arguments over Smith vs. Tennant overlap with Moffat vs. Davies and vice versa.
    • A couple of regenerations have had a certain Armed with Canon pre-emptive guilt-tripping going on, with the previous Doctor outright disowning their replacement, or regenerating in circumstances ugly enough to start the new Doctor off on a sour note. In the Classic series, the Second Doctor's attitude towards regeneration and dislike of his successor can sour initial opinions of the Third Doctor; and in the Third Doctor's second-to-last serial, he mocks Sarah Jane when he thinks she's died by saying "it's almost like you'll prefer me dead". The most damaging occurrence of this was the Tennant/Smith transition — Ten's last words ("I don't want to go") and his previously-unprecedented claims that regenerating is dying and a entirely new man walks away, with his past incarnations' memories and no continuity of consciousness, made lots of fans feel Eleven had killed and taken over the beloved Ten.
    • In a possible attempt to avert the Tennant/Smith debacle with Smith/Capaldi, Moffat has Eleven tell his companion Clara in his Final Speech in "The Time of the Doctor" that everybody changes throughout their lives and he won't forget when he was the Doctor. Much of "Deep Breath"'s plot hinges on Clara's reluctance to accept the older-looking, grouchy, broody Twelfth Doctor, and in the denouement she intends to leave him... whereupon she receives a call from Eleven, who phoned the future specifically to tell her (and the fans) to accept the Twelfth, in part because he needs support at this fraught time. From there, a key plot thread in the Series 8 Story Arc is how their relationship evolves; it isn't until Episode 8 ("Mummy on the Orient Express") that she fully understands and accepts Twelve for who he is.
  • This goes for the Doctor's companions as well, particularly when one arrives around the same time as another departs. Several times, this is even lampshaded in the show, with the Doctor considering the new companion an inferior replacement for his old one:
    • "The Time Meddler": Ian and Barbara chose to return to their own time in the previous serial, and the First Doctor spends the story in an uncharacteristically gloomy and morbid mood and fishing for attention from Vicki until the new companion, Steven (a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Ian), reveals he was stowing away on the TARDIS. The Doctor makes it quite clear that he views Steven as an inferior version of Ian, and takes an immediate dislike to him based on this, picking on him and using him as a focus for all his frustration over losing his friend. He soon warms up to Steven when he gets to know him, though not for a couple of stories.
    • The Third Doctor complained when the Brigadier assigned Jo to him as a replacement for Liz, initially rejecting her on the grounds that he needed someone "more like Liz" despite having barely spoken to her. But when he actually tried rejecting her to her face, he couldn't bring himself to go through with it. He's similarly suspicious of Sarah Jane as a replacement for Jo later on, and she only manages to talk him into letting her be his assistant about halfway through her second serial.
    • Jo gets an unusual amount of Replacement Scrappy from certain fans due to the off-screen circumstances of her replacement of Liz: Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks thought that Liz's Ice Queen overtones made her too unsympathetic and that her scientific background made her too knowledgeable to act as The Watson. (Fortunately, Caroline John had independently decided to leave, not knowing that she was about to be sacked.) The blatantly sexist overtones of Letts' and Dicks' commentary on the matter cause some fans to react against Jo and heavily exaggerate her ditziness.
    • Leela was criticised by many reviewers and fans in the 70s for being an inferior replacement to the extremely popular and definitive companion Sarah Jane Smith. A lot of the hate she got was due to her being dramatically Hotter and Sexier than her predecessor and a bloodthirsty Psycho Sidekick, leading people to assume her addition showed the show was derailing into What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?, and shallow Parent Service. A lot more of the hate she got was due to great audience attachment to Sarah, meaning many fans simply didn't want to see the Doctor pick up another girl at all (the Doctor/companion relationship was seen in the 70s as being pseudoromantic, so Die for Our Ship is the mindset here). Tom Baker was well known to have hated the character for both of the above reasons, and he can often be seen attempting to upstage and annoy the actress on screen. The character is much more popular today, and is often considered one of the very best Classic companions.
    • Even the Tenth Doctor initially seems to consider Martha an inferior replacement for Rose, which was shared by much of the fandom, particularly as Rose is one of the most popular companions. This is quite a hot topic, as Rose is one of the biggest Base Breaking Characters in Doctor Who. Many fans hated Martha for her love for the Doctor while he was recovering over Rose. Some fans like to observe that Rose shows jealousy towards Martha as her replacement, where Martha is gracious and kind towards her replacement, Donna.
  • The show going on as long as it has and the occasional trial-and-error nature of its writing, this is inverted a few times too.
    • Vicki, Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Susan (so much so that Sydney Newman had even wanted Maureen O'Brien to cut her hair and dye it black to look like Carole Ann Ford), is generally seen as an improvement on Susan due to the writers having a more consistent idea of what they wanted to do with her, William Hartnell's obvious fondness for the actress, and the fact that making her a friend of the Doctor rather than a relative goes a long way towards making the same basic character archetype work.
    • Romana II was and is way more popular than Romana I — partly due to the shift from a Tall, Dark, and Snarky Meta Guy who got constantly upstaged by the Doctor to a character embracing the Doctor's weird world who often upstaged the Doctor, and partly because of the added frisson of her sexier chemistry with the Doctor.
• A recurring trend now for Downton Abbey despite still having a large cast as it is.
  • Lovable and ambitious housemaid Gwen left to become a secretary she was replaced in the second season/series by arrogant and unprofessional Ethel. Ethel eventually did get something of a storyline that took her out of the Abbey (YMMV if her character improved from it).
  • Alfred replaced Thomas as the ambitious footman since Thomas leaves his position, but later returns as Lord Grantham's valet.
  • Jimmy replaced William as the second footman in the third series. His storyline is mostly involved with Thomas.
  • Cousin Rose joined the cast to fill the rebellious young woman void after Sybil's death, but so far lacks the charm and compassion that Sybil had.
  • Ivy, a maid, joined after Daisy was promoted to assistant cook. She doesn't have much of a personality aside from being a flirt.
• Subverted on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, when Sully's friend Daniel came to town to help search for the missing Sully. Originally, the plan was for Sully to be Killed Off for Real (his portrayer, Joe Lando, wanted to leave the series to take on new projects and spend more time with his family) and Daniel to be Mike's new love interest. Distraught fans flooded producers with a "Save Our Sully" campaign and the decision was amended—although Daniel still became the show's new male protagonist, Sully was kept alive (but with reduced screen time to accomodate Joe Lando's wishes), thus mostly avoiding any vitriol.
• Earth: Final Conflict replaced a character every season. At the beginning of the second season, Boone was replaced with Liam, and then Renee replaced Lili, Street replaced Augur, and in the last season, Renee replaced Liam, becoming both the lead and the female. The show suffered each time.
• Richard Roeper as Roger Ebert's partner in film critiquing, following the tragic death of Gene Siskel. Ebert even softened the blow by bringing on a variety of guest hosts before finally sticking with Roeper, but people still missed Siskel & Ebert's legendary chemistry.
  • When Ebert & Roeper was retooled into At the Movies in 2008, now hosted by Ben Mankiewicz and Ben Lyons, the response from longtime viewers quickly escalated into negativity. Lyons became the subject of mockery at Efilmcritic.com's "Ben Lyons Quote of the Week", and even Roger Ebert himself called him out for his poor work, not naming him but quoting his reviews from the show — arguably Lyons qualified as an actual Scrappy. A year later, they were dropped and replaced by Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott (from Chicago Tribune and New York Times, respectively).
• El Chavo del ocho did this numerous times, rather temporary or definetive replacements:
  • Don Ramón has been replaced by Don Román in 1975 and by Jaimito el Cartero in 1979/1980 and 1982-1990.
  • Doña Clodtilde was replaced by Doña Eduviges for two episodes in 1973.
  • But the most unpopular is Malicha, who replaced La Chilindrina (when actress María Antonieta de las Nieves was pregnant), she had the same personality of Chilindrina and they were both related to Don Ramón (Chilindrina is his daughter and Malicha, his goddaughter), but she wasn't Chilindrina and was cut out after three episodes and was never ever mentioned again.
• Fantasy Island had this problem; in the final season they replaced the famous Tattoo with the forgettable Lawrence.
• Jool from Farscape. Partly this was a deliberate ploy by the writers: the much-loved Zhaan had been killed off because the actor fell ill, and they decided to create a new character who would roughly fill the same "brainy female character" niche but be completely different in almost every way, including being abrasive rather than kindly and lovable. Some people never warmed up to her as much as the writers hoped, though, to say the least. This was not helped by the fact that "different in every other way" included being a useless Damsel in Distress while Zhaan was an extremely competent Badass Pacifist.
• Tracy in Forever Knight was never well received among fans, especially after the insulting and unceremonious death of the beloved character Schanke. Both Schanke and Tracy were Nick's human partners who do not know he is a vampire. Even so most fans do recognized that the actress Lisa Ryder tried her best and wasn't her fault.
• Dexter Fletcher replacing Dominik Diamond for one series on GamesMaster.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Robb's wife Jeyne Westerling from the books was replaced with Talisa Maegyr in the show, who filled the exact same role yet was a completely different character. The fans of the books were generally a little less than pleased with this change. In fact Talisa was criticised for her 'outspoken healing woman' characterization being far too cliched to exist in George RR Martin's universe. Fortunately for them, her lifespan was much shorter than Jeyne's.
  • After Joffrey Baratheon's death, Ramsay Snow gets an expanded role from the books to take his place as the most vile character in the series. Apparently missing that Joffrey was well-received because he constantly suffered due consequences for it, Ramsay was made into an Invincible Villain in a series where his wanton cruelty should have gotten him quickly eliminated. It's only at the end of "Battle Of The Bastards" that he gets karma which, satisfying as it was, had detractors for resulting from a straight good vs. evil fight as opposed to the logical consequence of his actions.
• Happened in the fourth season of Glee with "New" New Directions. After half of the original kids graduated at the end of Season 3, five new students were introduced. However, none of them caught on with viewers as much as the originals, mostly because they filled the same roles as the kids who left: Marley was literally declared "The New Rachel", Jake was Puck's younger brother, Ryder was Finn in all but name, Kitty idolized Quinn, and Unique even described herself as the lovechild of Kurt and Mercedes (it didn't help that the new kids even looked like the ones they were copying). Some argue that due to Glee having many characters by this point, the new kids never had a chance to shine. Others were simply more interested in the grads who moved to New York City. Eventually the show dropped the Lima-based characters altogether to move the story to New York full time.
• Head of the Class had replaced a bunch of students in its fourth season. Maria, Jawaharlal and Janice were replaced by Viki, Alex, Aristotle and TJ. In it's fifth season, Mr. Moore the teacher played by Howard Hessman was replaced by Billy MacGregor played by Billy Connolly.
• Arthur Petrelli from Heroes has a rather nasty backstory behind him. Originally a Posthumous Character, he was very suddenly brought in during Volume Three, revealed to have by far the most broken power in the series yet and personal designs on world domination. Further, the very first episodes introducing him were explicitly devoted to his killing off basically every non-Sylar villain the series had cultivated up to that point. Maury Parkman, the "Nightmare Man" sold in Season 2 as being worse than Sylar, met his end by Arthur, as did the immensely popular Adam Monroe, widely regarded as the Manipulative Bastard to beat. The thing was, though, Maury and Adam were products of Season 2, which was plagued by a writer's strike. While the writers were on strike, replacements were brought in who built up Maury and Adam. The original writers, upon returning, immediately set out to dismantle the work of their replacements, who they had a major grudge with. Thus, Arthur Petrelli was retooled as a Voldemort-esque Greater-Scope Villain. This didn't quite work the way the Volume 3 writers planned, due to Arthur being a Boring Invincible Villain.
  • Also even though she was there first, fans did not take well to Matt getting back with his ex-wife after Daphne died.
• The second half of Season 3 of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates had Hetty's husband Robert taking a trip to Australia to help their son and coincidentally his brother Frank staying with Hetty at around the same time. The regular characters weren't too happy with Frank's presence, and from reviews of the series it seems that the fans agree.
• Hollyoaks:
  • Lindsey Butterfield was designed as a deliberate Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Lynsey Nolan; who shone in the serial killer storyline with Silas Blissett, but was then murdered by Dr Browning in a copycat killing. Lindsey has the same name (albeit spelt differently), same job, and very similar looks to Lynsey; which drives Browning to a breakdown as he believes her to be Lynsey's ghost. Since the end of that storyline, Lindsey has mostly been caught up in standard Love Triangle drama, and many fans find her very dull compared to her predecessor.
  • After the death of popular villainess Clare Devine, her sister Grace Black was introduced to the show. She was quickly lambasted by viewers for being annoying, supposedly not as attractive as Clare, and being part of the none too popular gangster storyline. When Grace was told in-universe that she should have died instead of Clare, very few fans disagreed.
• Pretty much every character in Homicide: Life on the Street who was introduced later than about the fifth or sixth season. Especially Falsone, Ballard and Sheppard, who are often dismissed as being purely there as fanservice for respectively female and male viewers.
• House losing his entire team at the end of Season 3, and eventually bringing in three new doctors. Thirteen got the worst of it by far.
  • While Thirteen's never really recovered from it, Taub and Kutner did move out of Replacement Scrappy territory fairly quickly, thanks to Taub having a dry sense of humor that could rival House's at times, and Kutner being a loveable dork. What helped their cases was that they basically had half a season of introduction before becoming official team members thanks to House's "auditions."
  • Then the show took this Up to Eleven in Seasons 7 and 8 by getting Replacement Scrappies for the first Replacement Scrappies. The addition of Masters, Adams, and Park solidified the show's Seasonal Rot, and the network decided that the eighth season would be the last.
• The House of Anubis fandom was not too pleased with either Willow or KT, who seemed to be replacing Amber and Nina, respectively. While some still see them as this, things have calmed down once the characters settled into their unique new roles and proved to be not so much like Nina and Amber as people thought they'd be.
• Inverted with How It's Made host and pro swimmer Mark Tewskbury. He was the show's first host, and also the most hated, mainly because he did absolutely nothing to fight the common stereotype that all athletes have very dull personalities and voices. Predictably, many people skip the parts where he introduces the show, and hate the fact that they're forced to listen to him drone on during the narration.
• Invoked on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. When Dennis left the Gang to go to North Dakota in the Season 12 finale, he was replaced in the following season's premiere with Cindy, an out-of-place character played by a famous actress...only to have Dennis return halfway through the episode and escort her out, and she was never seen again. Though in a way played straight as people who got the joke didn't like her.
• Kamen Rider Decade is an anniversary show featuring its protagonists visiting alternate reality worlds ("A.R. Worlds") where versions of the events of previous Kamen Rider series in the Heisei Era take place. One A.R. character who is particularly disliked is the one who became a supporting cast member — Yusuke Onodera, the A.R. World version of Yusuke Godai, Kamen Rider Kuuga. While Godai was an All-Loving Hero who barely had a bad bone in his body, Onodera was introduced as a petty, angry and distrustful Kuuga. A lot of people didn't like him, not helped by Kuuga being an especially beloved Rider. It's theorised that the negative reception to Onodera is why Kuuga didn't have a tribute in the next Heisei anniversary show, Kamen Rider Zi-O — because Godai's actor doesn't want to return to the role (and is the only Rider in Kuuga, meaning using another Rider isn't possible), and replacing him already had negative results. However, dislike for Onodera died down over the years, and his eventual return as part of the Decade cast's return, rather than as a Kuuga tribute, was well-received.
• Kamen Rider Revice had Hikaru Ushijima, the fourth character to use the Demons Driver, although he wasn’t Kamen Rider Demons like the previous users, but Kamen Rider Over Demons. The initial user, Hiromi Kadota, was an Ensemble Dark Horse who was written off the show when the actor got busy with a stage production, so the Driver went to a villain and then briefly a former Mad Scientist ally of the main cast, and these two decisions were decently well-received at the time. However, when the chips were down, Hikaru was the one to use the Demons Driver, in a new form no less, and save the day. Hikaru was such a minor character that many fans didn’t even know his name and just referred to him as “Friend Zone Guy”, because for over half the show’s duration, his sole character trait was a one-sided crush on Sakura Igarashi. This decision wasn’t well-received, and the attempts to give Hikaru a proper arc rang hollow because most saw it as taking time that could’ve been spent on other characters who were being underused (even the main character himself), while the arc’s execution relied on the audience caring about Hikaru’s parents, who were just as bland as he was. The fandom cheered when Hikaru gave the Demons Driver to Go Tamaki, another Ensemble Dark Horse, who it was felt earned the right to be a Kamen Rider more than Hikaru.
• Rose on Keeping Up Appearances being portrayed by Shirley Stelfox in Series 1, then Mary Millar in all subsequent series (though this might actually be an improvement...).
• Larry King and Larry King Live getting replaced by Piers Morgan and Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN. Larry King Live was the television interview program since 1985, a continuation of Larry King's radio program which ran since 1978. There was no way CNN could find a replacement who could live up to that legacy when they did not bother to renew King's contract in 2010, but going with the already controversial Piers Morgan was not a great choice (his show was axed after a mere three years).
• Law & Order:
  • Law & Order:
    • The parent series has had their share of cast replacements over the years, but most have been handled pretty well. Among the more notable Replacement Scrappies are Nora Lewin (Dianne Wiest) for Adam Schiff (Steven Hill), Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina) for Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), and Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Rohm) for Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon).
    • Briscoe himself is a pretty notable aversion of this trope; having replaced Phil Ceretta (Paul Sorvino) who himself replaced Max Greevey (George Dzundza), Briscoe went on to become one of the show's most popular characters and a pretty iconic example of a TV cop in his own right.
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
    • Diane Neal as Casey Novak, replacing Stephanie March's beloved Alex Cabot, actually averted this. The fanbase generally warmed to Novak — she's easily the second most-popular ADA the show has ever had (and the longest lasting), but then she was Put on a Bus and replaced by Kim Greylek (Michaela McManus), who was so despised that the producers got rid of her before a full season was even up. They brought back March, to the delight of the fandom, particularly from the large section of the fandom who loved the Alex/Olivia Les Yay.
    • Dani Beck was this to Olivia Benson when she went undercover in Season 8. Dani's hot-headed nature rubbed some the wrong way, and her relationship with Elliot was a major thorn in the side who preferred Elliot/Olivia.
    • Chester Lake became a regular at the same time John Munch was Demoted to Extra, essentially replacing him as Fin's partner. Due to Munch's fan favorite status, this could only be the result.
    • Chicago Justice Transplant Peter Stone was introduced by prosecuting and ultimately replacing the (extremely popular) previous ADA, Rafael Barba, which did not initially endear him to viewers who then had to sit through half a season heavily focused on his overwrought and unengaging personal life. This disproportionate screen time came at the expense of longstanding and better liked characters, including Olivia herself, earning him ire from all sides of the fandom.
  • Law & Order: UK
    • Sam Casey for Matt Devlin. The sad thing is, he wasn't a bad character or actor at all, he just simply wasn't Matt. He and Ronnie lacked the rapport and chemistry that the previous pairing had had—and was arguably the most enjoyable part of the show—and a few of his dumb moves didn't do him any favors either. His replacement, however, Joe Hawkins, seemed to avert this.
    • Kate Barker for Alesha Philips. Her first appearance, as the defense attorney for a man responsible for the death of numerous people as well as some of her dumb moves didn't endear her to the viewers either. As well, she appeared to be based on one of the less popular ADAs from the original series, Serena Southerlyn, a Replacement Scrappy herself.
• When Leverage brought on Tara (Jeri Ryan) to replace Sophie in season two (due to Gina Bellman's pregnancy) she became this for many fans. Her insistence on being paid also irritated viewers who didn't like how it contrasted the charitable actions of the main cast. Some sections of fandom still hate her, while others warmed to the character and came to enjoy her as a temporary team member.
• At the beginning of season 4 on Little Mosque on the Prairie, Reverend Magee, who isn't entirely competent but at least tries to be a Good Shepherd, is Put on a Bus and replaced by Reverend Thorne, who is like a more Affably Evil Sinister Minister (it's Canada, so he's more polite about it). Many of the fans who liked the lighthearted exchanges between Amaar and Duncan were not very happy.
• Ted McGinley joined Married... with Children in its fifth season as Marcy's new husband Jefferson. Some fans didn't react well to the change, and McGinley himself estimated it took about two seasons before the audience adjusted. He arguably zigzags this trope, though, since he's not generally blamed for any decline the show had in quality and many fans liked him just as much if not more than his predecessor Steve, who was played by David Garrison. Notably, the show lasted for another six seasons after McGinley joined the cast.
• At about the same time Anthony Head as King Uther left Merlin, Nathaniel Parker was introduced as Arthur's uncle Agravaine (there was only a three episode overlap between the two characters). Though different in many ways, he was essentially a male family member who provided guidance and advice to Arthur (albeit treacherous advice). For a number of reasons, he didn't go down well with fans, one of them certainly because he was unfavourably compared to Uther, having not nearly as much development or complexity as his predecessor.
• Rudy from Misfits is this to many fans, after being introduced in season 3 as fan-favourite Nathan's replacement, and some have boycotted the series in protest. In fairness, it's hardly the show's fault the actor playing Nathan decided to quit, but so far the most common criticism aimed at Rudy is that he is far too similar to Nathan in terms of personality, but too wangsty and not as funny. On the other hand, some fans like him, leading to a bit of a Broken Base situation.
  • It gets worse in season 4. After Kelly is Put on a Bus and Simon and Alisha are trapped in a time loop, the three are replaced by Jess, Finn, and Alex, who have yet to show any trait they didn't borrow from the original characters. Finn has both Simon's timidity and Nathan depraved humor, while Jess has Kelly's tough attitude and Alysha's sarcasm. However, watching them makes you only miss more and more the original cast.
• A series of Replacement Scrappies, most notably Lee Meriwether as Tracy, filled in on Mission: Impossible after Barbara Bain left. Lesley Warren eventually got the role of Dana for the fifth season, and was treated as a Replacement Scrappy by some. Others found her replacement, Lynda Day George, to be more Scrappy-ish.
  • "Secret Agent Spock" (Paris, to give him his real name) replaced Martin Landau's Rollin Hand (and technically both Paris and Dana were replaced by Casey, since she was also the team's disguise expert).
  • A clean-shaven (!) Sam Elliott was brought in as Dr. Doug Robert for Season 5, replacing Willy Armitage (Peter Lupus). Fan reaction was so negative that the doctor was let go, and Willy was brought back.
• In the third season of Mutant X, many fans hated Lexa when she was brought in to replace Emma. The let down of Emma taking a level in badass at the end of season two, only to be killed off screen in the first episode of season three didn't help.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Many viewers who prefer the original host Joel over his replacement, Mike, have this trope as their reasoning. This is how some fans of Dr. Clayton Forrester and TV's Frank feel about Pearl, Bobo, and the Observer.
• With Scarlett en route to being redeemed on Nashville due to a) her drug use and b) having a mother who makes Juliette's late mom seem like Olivia Walton, and fan non-favourite Teddy also not completely despised, Scarlett's best friend and tedious storyline regular Zoey fills the vacant spot. Luke "Wheels Up" Wheeler is also not beloved by viewers, not least because he gets in the way of Fan-Preferred Couple Rayna and Deacon.
• NCIS
  • Ziva David started out as this. With all the outrage over Kate's death, the news that Ziva, who not only wasn't Kate, but was the half-sister of the terrorist who killed Kate, was going to be her replacement was not well received. Proving herself a couple of times in season three, most significantly by killing Ari and helping Gibbs recover his memory, she managed to redeem herself in the eyes of the fandom.
  • Her replacement Ellie Bishop has gotten this as well. Making her Ziva's (and Kate's) polar opposite in terms of looks and personality seems to have backfired.
• Max Louis in season 5 of NewsRadio. After Phil Hartman's untimely death, Jon Lovitz joined the show to replace his departed friend for what turned out to be, not coincidently, the show's final season.
• Taylor Townsend was seen as this for Marissa on The O.C. despite being introduced before Marissa was killed off. Marissa's sister Kaitlin could also be seen as this.
• One Tree Hill Season 7 introduces main characters Clay Evans and Quinn James after former protagonist Lucas Scott and his One True Love Peyton Sawyer were Put on the Bus in the previous Season Finale. As both characters being a pastiche of various characteristics that Lucas and Peyton had, they never came close to the popularity of their predecessors.
• Power Rangers Turbo is a weird variant, as the season is considered one of the weakest in the franchise and one of the cited reasons is that they replaced nearly the entire cast over the course of it (Rocky, Zordon, and Alpha 5 with Justin, Dimitria, and Alpha 6 at the beginning; the other four Rangers midseason). However, most individual characters, while not as fondly remembered as their longtime predecessors, are considered mostly inoffensive - in fact, the second half of the season gets a better rep than the first, and the latter replacements continued on into the highly regarded Power Rangers in Space. Not too shabby for replacements.
  • That said, a couple of the new guys are thought of as Scrappies; but on their own merits and not just because they replaced the old guy. Justin was half the other Rangers' age and bumped up to high school to be with them, thereby reeking of being the Kid-Appeal Character and Creator's Pet. Dimitria came from a Planet of Hats whose shtick was Figure It Out Yourself (though she dropped this when the latter replacements came in). Alpha 6 was a Jive Turkey and ruder than 5 was; traits which were thankfully removed in the carryover to In Space.
  • Going back to the first three seasons of MMPR, the Replacement Rangers were not well liked initially. Rocky (for Jason), Adam (for Zack), Aisha (for Trini), and Kat (for Kimberly) were all met with some venom, but most were able to get past it. Poor Kat got the worst of it, since Die for Our Ship was also at play for the Tommy/Kimberly fans.
• Power Rangers Samurai has an in-universe treatment of Lauren as this for Jayden. She is the actual inheritor of the Sealing Technique required to defeat the Big Bad and the Red Samurai Ranger. When she appears and does a decent job, including doing her best to get to know the team and making friends with them, they are too busy moping about how Jayden is leaving them now. They lament how Jayden was their leader, their friend and held up the team, with Emily saying that he's the reason she can be a better fighter. A quick line from Mike to Kevin sums it up perfectly.
  Kevin: Jayden never liked you training with him.
  Mike: She's not Jayden.
• Super Sentai, as well as later seasons of Power Rangers, introduces an entire new group of heroes, villains, and even the general premise every year. This allows for the rare case of scrappy seasons/series for not being like the previous one. One famous example is Choujin Sentai Jetman being such a Tough Act to Follow that for the next four of five years (at least) people would complain about the new Sentai not being Jetman, even if the reviewer liked the series!
• This happens whenever a new lead character shows up on Primeval. After Nick Cutter died, there were fans who didn't approve of Danny Quinn. Matt Anderson got a simlar treatment, though that wasn't to do with replacing Danny, but more the fact that many people found him bland.
• Profiler: Exit Ally Walker, Enter Jamie Luner. Averted with Captain Becker. Even though many fans were sad when Steven Hart died, Becker quickly became a popular character in the fandom.
• In Red Dwarf Season III, Norman Lovett was replaced by Hattie Hayridge as Holly. The in-show explanation was that Holly got a face-sex change. The new Holly for some fans was never quite as funny to watch as the old Holly, and the show began to feature Holly less and less.
  • This was less to do with the change of actor, more that the third series introduced Kryten, who was a more suitable character to provide the plot exposition previously provided by Holly. Word of God is also that they got a new producer who didn't really know how to do the Holly scenes (pointing a camera at Hol's screen, rather than feeding the Holly image in directly.)
  • Additionally, Kochanski in Season VII replaced Rimmer. Apart from the fact that she replaced the many people’s favourite character in the show, Kochanski herself wasn't particularly funny or interesting at all. The fact that Kochanski had been fairly popular as a guest character, but was now a regular played by The Other Darrin didn't help.
• Robin Hood introduced the character of Kate in the third series, to replace the departed Marian and Djaq. Before a single episode featuring her had aired, she was being criticised in the fandom as a poor replacement; pre-publicity material frequently described her as "feisty" and hinted that she would become Robin's new love interest. The first episode she appears in was duly broadcast, and the same fans said "See, we were right." Technically, those fans were right. Kate's character was a Faux Action Girl, The Load, a Satellite Love Interest, and the centrepiece of several Trapped by Mountain Lions plots. Half the outlaws fell in love with her for no reason, she was constantly getting kidnapped and then inexplicably cross when people rescued her, and had no useful skills or personality to speak of that went beyond " grumpy feisty village girl." Much of the fandom were willing to give her a chance (as well as being sympathetic to the actress playing her) but she never got any better. And let's face it, any original female character who is brought in for the sole purpose of replacing the legendary Maid Marian as Robin Hood's love interest is doomed to be despised for the crime of not being Marian. Why did the writers even try?
• The earlier Robin of Sherwood did something even more controversial by killing Robin himself at the end of the second season and replacing him with Robert of Huntingdon (due to the actor leaving). Pretty much the whole audience for the show at the time still hate him. However, later generations of fans who go into the show knowing about the changeover tend to have a much more positive response to him.
• Nickelodeon's Salute Your Shorts swapped out Michael for Pinsky in its second season, and fan opinion appears to be fairly evenly divided as to whether he was a more outgoing and fun personality or an obnoxious loudmouth with the aggravating tendency to get portrayed as The Ace.
• Saturday Night Live:
  • Believe it or not, Bill Murray was considered a Poor Man's Substitute for Chevy Chase when he joined in the second season, to the point where he received hate mail. Obviously, Murray wound up redeeming himself in the eyes to the public, to the point where he's much more popular than Chase now.
  • The season six cast. The first episode's Cold Open had the new castmembers introduce themselves to the audience by comparing themselves to previous castmembers. Gail Matthius described herself as a cross between Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin, Charles Rocket described himself as a cross between Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, and Gilbert Gottfried described himself as a cross between John Belushi and "and that guy from last year who did Rod Serling, and no one can remember his name" (Harry Shearer). This did nothing to endear them to the audience and by the end of the season, everyone was given the boot except Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy.
  • Lampshaded by Colin Quinn on the first episode in which he replaced Norm Macdonald in the Weekend Update sketches: "You know how you go to your favorite bar, and your local bartender isn't there? You ask, 'Where's Jeff?' 'Jeff no longer works here, I'm Steve.' Then you're thinking, hey, who's this idiot? I like Jeff. But you still want your drink. And even though Steve doesn't mix your drink the same way you're used to, like Jeff, you still like the bar. You don't want to have to go to a different bar. And even Steve might feel kinda bad because Jeff trained him. Jeff showed him how to work the cash register, where the tonic was on the soda gun, who tips, who doesn't. Well, I'm Steve. What can I get you?" Although he was not considered a replacement scrappy, he still was not very popular and didn't last long in the position before being replaced himself.
• Tori from Saved by the Bell. Due to a network order, the fourth season suddenly had more episodes produced. Actresses Elizabeth Berkley and Tiffani Thiessen opted to move on, meaning Tori had to be created to fill their roles. As such she's a mix of the Straw Feminist Jessie and Girl Next Door Kelly and got Character Shilling with all the others saying how great she was. Her episodes create a weird Plot Hole fans call 'The Tori Paradox' - as the finale had already been filmed, you get a weird situation where Jessie and Kelly inexplicably vanish, Tori arrives at the school and becomes Zack's Love Interest, and then just in time for graduation, Tori vanishes never to be mentioned again and Jessie and Kelly return and it's as if they never left.
• Season 9 of Scrubs shifted the show from the familiarity of Sacred Heart and J.D. being the main character, to being at medical school and following med students. Not only this, but they removed most of the characters from the past 8 seasons. J. D. and Elliot were each only there for half the episodes, the Janitor only appeared once, and Carla never even appeared. The only two consistent main characters from the older seasons were Turk and Dr. Cox. The reason is that it was intended to be a Spin-Off, but the network ended up pushing the show runners into keeping the original name & acting like it was a continuation of the existing show.
• Carmen Electra replacing Jenny McCarthy on MTV's Singled Out.
• Sliders went through quite a few cast changes, the most infamous of which was the replacement of Jerry O'Connell with Robert Floyd. This was sort of a hybrid between The Other Darrin and an outright replacement: Floyd's character was ostensibly an alternate-dimension double of O'Connell's character, Quinn Mallory. (Why he looked, acted and sounded absolutely nothing like his "double" is handwaved with a Techno Babble explanation in his first episode.)
  • For some, Maggie was never forgiven for replacing Arturo. Her original Jerkass status didn't help at all, though that faded and the hate for her, for many, didn't.
• In Smallville, Tess Mercer isn't that bad, but it is hard to be favoured over Lex Luthor. She's generally considered to be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap once the show quit making her Lex's Suspiciously Similar Substitute and gave her her own very complex characterization. Ironically, two and a half years after her introduction the show revealed just how much of Lex's replacement she actually was, as the entire time she was Lex's paternal half-sister, making her the show's actual replacement Luthor even if no one (including her) knew it at the time.
• So Weird: Annie, the protagonist of Season 3, is this for the previous protagonist Fiona. It isn't helped by the fact that her existence came about via Executive Meddling and Screwed by the Network resulting in a massive tonal overhaul of the series and abruptly cutting short the story and character arcs that were being built up in the first two seasons.
• Spartacus: Blood and Sand, mostly as a result of The Other Darrin for specific characters.
  • Lead star Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with and died from cancer immediately after the inaugural Season Finale, which forced production to recast the titular role. Liam McIntyre was ultimately cast, but he had an uphill battle with fan appreciation thanks to Whitfield's performance being a very Tough Act to Follow. Fortunately, McIntyre stepped his game up during the final season and made the role his own.
  • Actress Lesley-Ann Brandt opted not to return to the series after pay disputes so Cynthia Addai-Robinson took over as Naevia. The switch in actress, unfortunately, also coincided with the time Naevia went through a massive character change. She Took a Level in Jerkass and alternated between Blood Knight and Damsel Scrappy, causing many fans to abandon her. General consensus seems to be that Brandt would have been able to make viewers sympathize with Naevia's reaction to her Trauma Conga Line, but that the new actress and the switch in personality made her feel like a different character. It should be noted that it's not specifically due to actor consistency. If Addai-Robinson played Naevia from the beginning, the case would be different.
• Stargate:
  • Stargate SG-1:
    • Jonas Quinn to the point when a massive Internet campaign was organized to bring Daniel Jackson back. The fact that Jonas Quinn had a higher intelligence than most humans, an eidetic memory and very high skills of observation, to the point that he was obviously being brought in as the "upgraded Daniel Jackson" - who conveniently memorized all of Daniel's work and so could fill his role instantly - did not help.
    • Colonel Cameron Mitchell filled the same job as Jack O'Neill but minus his angst, disdain for science, etc. A well-thought out, unique character, and well-liked character played by a very good Ben Browder. But he was never EVER gonna be Jack O'Neill. Which is why he was a "well-thought-out, unique character" in the first place: because they knew they couldn't replace O'Neill. As such, Mitchell is more an aversion of this trope than a straight example.
  • Stargate Atlantis:
    • There was a bit of a backlash when Dr. Beckett was replaced with Dr. Keller. But because Dr. Keller was Kaylee on Firefly, the hate was restricted to "No offense, Jewel, but..." This is also considerably influenced by the reason Beckett was unavailable; many fans were ambivalent toward or even liked Keller, but just hated the way Beckett was killed off.
    • Many fans disliked Elizabeth Weir being killed off to make room for Amanda Tapping, as Col. Sam Carter, to hop series when SG1 concluded. Most fans liked Carter — it was, after all, Samantha Carter, one of the most beloved characters in the entire franchise — but felt that killing Weir off was unnecessary and killed the cast chemistry which made Atlantis enjoyable. To add insult to injury, Carter's character was much weaker on Atlantis than she'd been on SG1, as the writers tried to make her fill Weir's role instead of having her be herself. Amanda Tapping only remained on the show one season before leaving to focus on Sanctuary, and was in turn replaced by Robert Picardo, which worked out a little better, but was still not an adequate replacement for what Torri Higginson brought to the show.
  • In addition to this, Stargate Universe faces this, since it replaced Stargate Atlantis. In the series proper, we have Lt. Matthew Scott who one of the creators said was like "The Jack O'Neill of 10 years ago". Fan consensus promptly countered with the fact that we actually liked Jack O'Neill, 10 years ago and still do.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation had Dr. Beverly Crusher's one-season replacement Dr. Kate Pulaski. A lot of it has to do with the shady circumstances surrounding the brief departure of Gates McFadden, and there's never been a clear reason for why she left and whether it was due to conflict with the producers or not. There was also pushback from the fact that she played a much bigger role in her season than Crusher ever did. The third reason was that she was given a grumpy and abrasive personality, with a particularly unsympathetic tendency to display Just a Machine bigotry against Data, in an attempt to make her an Expy of McCoy. Fans didn't bite.
  • According to Rick Berman, head writer Maurice Hurley "had a real bone to pick" with McFadden and didn't like her acting, so she was fired. She was rehired when Hurley left after the second season.
  • Captain Jellicoe replaced Picard in a double episode as Picard was on a secret mission. Jellicoe is a gigantic base-breaking character: his authoritarian leadership style (including relieving Commander Riker of duty) put many viewers off, despite the justification that he was taking command of the flagship during a crisis that might have escalated into a full scale war.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had Ezri Dax, replacing Jadzia Dax. While the Dax symbiont was still technically there, the Ezri character was a clearly different woman from Jadzia, and many fans preferred Jadzia. One of the main reasons for this was because Jadzia was an Action Girl, The Smart Girl, and a fun-loving and confident woman. Ezri, on the other hand, was an insecure girl who couldn't fight and wasn't a trained scientist or engineer, leaving it a head scratcher for why Starfleet had assigned her to Deep Space Nine in the first place.
  • Of course many other fans, while still liking Jadzia, liked Ezri because she was not simply a clone of Jadzia and in fact completely the opposite, which helps explore the way by which hosts of a Trill symbiont, while sharing the same memories, are all very different.
  • It was lampshaded in-show; upon her first appearance, most of the characters in-show treated her as the Scrappy, including Worf, Jadzia's husband.
• Star Trek: Voyager:
  • Seven of Nine. Fans accused the writers of replacing Kes, a likable character with a lot of untapped potential, with a Space Barbie. Some acrimony over how Kes inexplicably turned evil and tried to kill everyone didn't help. Seven was originally supposed to replace Harry Kim, who was basically an Advertised Extra at that point (notice how Kim is grievously injured in the episode we first meet Seven). However, this was vetoed by the executives after Kim's actor was named one of the sexiest men on television. And so Kim got better, and Kes was Put on a Bus several episodes later.
    • Eventually Seven of Nine turned out to be a fan favorite, because of her interesting character, and Jeri Ryan can act. Seven and The Doctor became the Spotlight-Stealing Squad of the show. On set, however, it had been reported that the rest of the cast treated Ryan as the Replacement Scrappy, and despite their great on-screen chemistry, Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway) was alleged to be particularly harsh towards Ryan due to her close friendship with Jennifer Lien (Kes) as well as perceived spotlight stealing as Ms. Fanservice.
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody:
  • Bailey was this for Maddie at first. While Maddie was very smart and nice, she still had a ton of flaws. For example, where she excelled academically, she failed physically (often failing gym). She was a good student, but thanks to London, Maddie's homeroom teacher thought bitter of her. Maddie was very sarcastic, has shown on various occasions that she is easy to bribe with money and although smart, wasn't nearly as accelerated as Cody. Bailey, on the other hand, rivals Cody in academics, and unlike Cody's ex, Barbara, she wasn't prone to jealousy, nor was she a priss. All of the teachers and staff loved her, she was physically fit, and was too moral to fall for bribes. She got better as the show went on, though, as she developed some flaws and became more of a Butt-Monkey.
  • Maya was briefly this during the beginning of Season 3, due to viewers thinking she replaced Bailey or Marcus.
  • Replacement Scrappy Series: Many people thought this when On Deck replaced the original.
• Halfway through the seventh season of Supernatural, Bobby Singer, hunter coordinator, the Winchester boys' father figure and a recurring character since the first season finale, was killed off to make the current Big Bad seem more threatening. Around the same time we were introduced to Frank Devereaux, a Hollywood Hacker who served basically the same role on the show except he was more paranoid. He also made Dean ditch his iconic 67 Impala on the grounds that it was too recognizable, which was probably true, but at the same time had never been an issue in the past seven seasons. Needless to say fans didn't take to Frank and he was also killed off before the end of the season. His replacement, Garth Fitzgerald, has been somewhat more popular, though it probably helps that Garth had been previously established on the show before Bobby was killed off, is a wildly different character instead of a Suspiciously Similar Substitute, and is only used sparingly rather than shoehorned into the main plot.
• Happened in the Philippine edition of Survivor. After its second season, original host Paolo Bediones opts to change networks and was ultimately replaced by actor Richard Gutierrez for the role. Suffice to say, Gutierrez appeared way out of his league as the host. It doesn't help that the network shilled Gutierrez in every given chance leading up to the third Season premiere.
• Randy from That '70s Show was supposed to be a replacement for Eric - he even dated his longtime girlfriend, Donna, after they broke up inexplicably and offscreen. Practically every fan hated him. The writers finally caught on to this; he barely appears in the finale. Even worse, they started trying to make him a replacement Kelso as well as a replacement Eric, despite the fact that the two characters were vastly different. This resulted in Randy being a dumb nerd, a socially awkward player, and an unfunny clown.
• In Tinsel Season 5, Leonora Okine replaced Mathilda Obaseki as Angela. It didn't matter that it was a temporary replacement for Obaseki to go off show and have a baby. Fans who didn't even like Angela, hated the new one.
• After Chrissy Snow left Three's Company, she was replaced by her cousin, Cindy. Cindy was not particularly well-liked by fans as she was nearly a carbon copy of her cousin — a sweet, naive, Dumb Blonde — but who just wasn't as likeable or endearing. She was given one distinctive character trait ... extreme clumsiness. It was meant to be funny and lead to slapstick situations, but it didn't click: with world-class physical comedian John Ritter already in the cast, a second "clumsy" roommate (who wasn't anywhere near as good at it as Ritter) didn't lead to the intended guffaws. Cindy never really gelled as part of the cast, and departed as a roommate after half a season. She was replaced with Terri, who was still a knockout blonde like the first two — but who was also actually smart, savvy and a bit of a Deadpan Snarker, subverting the Dumb Blonde trope the series had previously worked with. Terri was a much better received character, and the series lasted another three seasons with her.
• After Jeremy Clarkson was acrimoniously sacked from Top Gear, and co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May left with him, The BBC Retooled the show. Chris Evans, Matt LeBlanc and Chris Harris were brought in as replacements, with Rory Reid, Eddie Jordan, and Sabine Schmitz as occasional guest presenters. Schmitz was well-liked from her appearances on the Clarkson-era show and avoided this trope entirely, but the other five immediately attracted criticism purely for not being Clarkson, Hammond, and May. Evans and Jordan in particular were loathed by fans - Evans for being an annoying Large Ham who made a bad first impression by throwing up during one of his earliest segments, and Jordan for just being annoying. Both were sacked after one series, with Reid becoming the third main presenter, and fans have since begun slowly warming up to him, Leblanc, and Harris, as their chemistry develops and the new format slowly grows its beard.
  • It also didn't help that Chris Evans' first act on the show was to make a joke about Clarkson's sacking, which many fans were still bitter over and to many also came across as Chris trying to show his superiority over Clarkson.
• The sci-fi teens show The Tribe had tribeleader and main character Amber replaced by Danni after Amber's death at the end of season 1. Danni was just downright unbearable. She got Amber's boyfriend and went from total stranger to tribeleader in half a season, which made not only Amber-Fans hate her guts. Luckily, after we find out Amber was never dead at all, she is quickly re-replaced, never to be seen again. None of the other characters seem to mind much.
• Walden Schmidt on Two and a Half Men is seen by many as a poor replacement for Charlie, mainly because he wasn't Charlie, but also because Ashton Kutcher's comedy style just doesn't seem to fit in with the show, and his interaction with the other characters feels rather forced and unnatural.
• Piz from Veronica Mars for Duncan who seemed to be brought in because the show wanted to continue to have a love triangle despite Duncan being gone.
• After Carl Grimes suffers Death by Adaptation midway through the eight season of The Walking Dead, most of his character arcs in the comics was given to Canon Foreigner Henry the following season. Henry never caught on with the fans, especially since he has a tendency to cling to the Idiot Ball.
• Some say this happened on Whose Line Is It Anyway? when Drew Carey replaced Clive Anderson as host. Of course, others say this is a subversion. It depends on which side of the Broken Base you're on. The 2013 revival has Aisha Tyler replacing Drew Carey, and now we have a whole new Broken Base over whether Aisha is a terrible host & they should bring Drew back or whether they should have never brought in Drew in the first place.
• After Thomas Hayden Church left Wings to star in Ned and Stacy, his role as mechanic for the terminal was taken over by Budd Bronski, played by comedian Brian Haley. Budd was pretty much unmemorable and had none of Lowell's Cloudcuckoo Lander tendencies or really any foibles to exploit for comedy ^note  (save for having been responsible for a plane crash in his past, which was dropped after its' only mention). Despite Haley being Promoted to Opening Titles, Budd did very little for the next season and a half and was eventually dropped from the show with no explanation with no one missing him.
• In the PBS show Wishbone, the original main characters were three kids (Joe, Sam and David) and Wishbone, the titular character (a dog). When they were suddenly renewed for a second season years later, the three "kids" had gotten too old for little kids to relate to anymore, so they were replaced by a couple of background character kids from earlier episodes.
• The X-Files:
  • Agent John Doggett, and later Agent Monica Reyes. Doggett has his share of fans, but Reyes... not so much. Doggett was written into the show for its eighth season as an agent who was put on a task force to look for missing Agent Mulder; his skepticism made a good foil to Scully, who was increasingly credulous to paranormal belief. Agent Reyes appeared a few times in Season 8, then became a regular in Season 9 to pair up with Doggett, becoming the believer to his skeptic. They didn't have a chance to be loved as much as Mulder and Scully were.
    • Appreciation for Doggett has increase over time among fans, to the point he has been ranked high among fans' favorites in recent times. Reyes, however, not so much.
  • Among supporting characters, there was Marita Covarubbias, Mulder's third Mysterious Informant after Deep Throat and X. Many fans disliked her because, compared to her predecessors, she was a Flat Character (derisively nicknamed "Deep Blonde") and often superfluously shoehorned into episodes. Made worse when she was revealed to be working for the Syndicate, and sleeping with Krycek to boot. She was Put on a Bus in Season Five and only made intermittent appearances afterwards.
• Among Vacanța Mare fans there's Florin Petrescu,who replaced Dan Sava after his Death 1999.Many fans hated him and claimed that he is annoying and has no humor whatsoever.While some fans simply claimed that he will never be as good as Sava
  • Urinela Bâzgă,Axinte's wife and Leana's Daughter-in-law from the Kanal D shows is seen as one for Matilda,Leana and Costel's Godmother from the Pro tv show by some fans
    • Superman the Bartender from Leana s-a Întors is seen as one for Romică,the bartender from the Pro tv show and earlier Kanal D shows.

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