We did our best to round up the very worst TV cast additions of all time — but even we can’t catch everything.
Last month, we unveiled our picks for what we dubbed the Cousin Oliver All-Stars: the most unappealing and unwelcome characters who were added to hit TV shows and failed miserably, named in honor of The Brady Bunch‘s infamous tyke. (Check out our original list here.) We cast a wide net, but our intrepid TVLine readers came up with even more character names that should never have appeared on a TV show’s cast list. A few of their selections are direct rebukes to our own list as well, naming alternate characters from the same TV shows who were even more dreadful than our picks. Of course we understand: Choosing terrible TV characters is a very personal decision.
Read on to see who else TVLine readers pegged as the worst TV characters to join their shows after the first season, including ill-advised additions to fan-favorite dramas like Grey’s Anatomy, Game of Thrones and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and classic comedies like The Office, The Cosby Show and Married… With Children. And if you didn’t see your own picks anywhere on our list or their list? Head on down to the comment section below and refresh our memories.
“He was just an awfully written character that never conveyed any convincing threat, and particularly annoying as [Kirk] Acevedo is a good actor and was introduced at the same time as the woefully underused Michael Emerson.” — cruachan
“I actually hated the addition of perpetually whiny Dawn to the Buffyverse. I can count on one hand the number of times she was at least mildly entertaining or useful.” — GoodTVFan
“Billie wasn’t the problem, it was Christy that didn’t really work well.” — Meg
“Just pointless. She took Lisa Bonet’s spot and really didn’t have chemistry with the cast.” — BEEPER BEEPER
“Jean Smart leaving and Delta Burke being fired left some HUGE shoes to fill and Allison and her pretentious attitude just didn’t cut it. It was baaaad.” — elevatordj
“Uncle Pirate was such an undeveloped, unneeded character. His dialogue, costumes, none of it clicked whatsoever with the rest of the show.” — Angela Denk
“Worst Grey’s Anatomy character ever.” — Julian
“Didn’t he later show up on a milk carton?” — Rayme
“The absolute worst.” — DR
“Bringing Nellie on was the end of the show for me. Truly terrible. She was way worse than Robert.” — KT
“More unrealistic than all the other characters combined.” — Muffy
“He actually showed up next door to the Partridges months before Cousin Oliver moved in with the Bradys.” — Bill
“How could you have missed the many characters of Ted McGinley? From Roger Phillips on Happy Days [to Ace on The Love Boat] to Jefferson on Married… With Children, there were plenty of roles.” — Rich
Ted McGinley has redeemed himself on Shrinking. Justice for Ted McGinley!
and to be fair he did play an OG character in Hope and Faith
As whole his career is actually pretty good
I loved him on Married…With Children. He was so incredibly dense.
He is fantastic on Shrinking and it doesn’t get talked about enough!
I wholeheartedly agree! The entire cast is absolutely brilliant, Ted included! He is flawless.
Facts! His role on Shrinking has hereby nullified all slander forever.
He may have redeemed himself, but he did what he did. His additions were terrible and numerous. I even forgot about Dynasty.
Yes Shrinking has a strong cast and he is still a scene stealer on it. So good.
Couldn’t agree more about Nellie. It’s entirely possible Catherine Tate is very funny in other works, but that character was a freaking train wreck from start to finish. The inexplicable trait that she was desperate to have a child was the most ridiculous attempt to redeem an irredeemable character maybe in the history of TV.
I never watched the Office, but I hated her season on Doctor Who. And I am an old school Who fan who enjoyed Colin Baker’s Doctor!
Donna Noble was hands down the best companion on New Who, and I will die on that hill.
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No way, Donna was amazing and it was SO refreshing to have a companion that wasn’t infatuated with the Doctor. I hated Amy Pond. Her run just became the Amy Pond show that just happened to have the Doctor as a supporting character. It became obnoxious.
I would like to add Quinn, Clay and Alex from One Tree Hill,
Kitty and Miles from Glee
Ivy and Sage from Gossip Girl
I loved Quinn and Clay! Alex grew on me eventually, I really liked her and Chase together though.
I think ricardo is one of the most underrated arrowverse characters, the guy was a very effective villain and yeah you had michael emerson as cayden james but arrow is an intense physical show, idk how effective cayden would have been as main antagonist of season 6 with just bombs and drones, he obviously needed someone like diaz to back him up and I thought diaz was a nice combination of brain and brawn.
Dawn could have been a good character on “Buffy” — the writers really let her down. They introduced her in a really funny way, having her appear out of nowhere as the whiny teenage sister (in an episode that was basically a parody of “My So-Called Life”). But they didn’t have to keep her like that! She could have learned how to fight, or her status as a mystical energy ball-turned-person could have been been more meaningful. In the end, she was only there as an excuse for Buffy to sacrifice herself at the end of the season — which would have been fine if that was the end of the series, but it wasn’t.
Agreed, but Dawn at least had a reason for existence on the show. Tara didn’t. Dawn got better once you got over her introduction, which, as you say, was sudden.
Tara was just there for things to happen to her that would be a problem if they happened to Dawn or anyone else.
Your not a true Buffy fan if you don’t love all the characters, dawns story is a sad upsetting one, shes a great character
I never liked Dawn. Awful character IMHO.
You can be a true fan of a show and still have one or two characters in it whom you can’t stand.
Agreed. Dawn is rough at first, but on rewatches so wonderful. And Michelle Trachtenberg did a great job. She at least had an excuse to be frustrating too. She was actually created to be the Key. That’s rough.
Dawn was supposed to be the annoying little sister and Michelle Trachtenberg played that role very well. She grew on me and her character improved over time. The last season was her best season.
Yup. And the way she was introduced — I thought it was genius! Sometimes, doesn’t the first child in the family feel, erm, even resent, the intrusion of another child into the family? The older sibling doesn’t always want the younger child tagging along or having to ‘baby-sit’! But there they are. And (hopefully) they grow on you!
I liked Dawn. Maybe not at first, because it was just too weird. But she grew on me as more context was introduced. Tara was my problem character on the show. Totally unnecessary and just a burden.
Disagree about Tara. Yes, she was a strange character, but she moved the arc of the series in various good ways: Willow’s first lesbian lover, and her death (which was gutting, especially with how stupid it was) leading to Dark Willow, which was amazing.
Shorter: Tara wasn’t much more than a plot element. Some people liked her right off, but she never grew on anyone. Even Willow found her tiresome after a while.
Ricardo Diaz=worst Arrowverse big bad. EVER. (Yes, even worse than Vandal Savage).
I disagree
I think lachesis from legends was quite boring and the worst one.
I disagree, too. I was surprised to see Diaz on this list. I though his character was great, very effective.
Same. I liked Ricardo Diaz. I did expect it to go into a smarter/epic direction but overall still liked him. Vandal Savage was such an annoying villain.
I liked Dawn… the scene where she finds out what she was and cuts herself still chokes me up.
So far I’m enjoying Ted McGinley in Shrinking but I’ve only seen 2 episodes. I feel bad now for what I said about Dawn from Buffy, but I mostly still stand by it.
The worst character additions in my opinion, goes to the NCIS LA Trio of Shay Mosley, Fatima Namazi and Devon *Tree* Rountree.
Nia Longs “Mosley” was so completely OTT Bat Poop crazy and she was simply too unprofessional to be believed. Fatima and Rountree are clearly nothing more than agenda pushing characters for the Network. Because both characters are portrayed as being far too self absorbed and immature and they behave more like a couple of College kids than the Federal Agents we’re supposed to believe they are.
I stopped watching the show after the Mosley series. Hidoko was a good character then they did her dirty by killing her off screen and not even IDing her till later, whilst Mosely stayed around for a bit longer.
.
Then of course they had to bring back Mac and Harm from JAG and have them in almost exactly the same place as they’d been 10 years earlier. Awful writing.
I mean Shane was bad but the worst? I dunno about that. Anyone remember Sadie? Melissa George’s character? 🤷🏻♂️
As bad as her character Lauren on Alias.
For me, it’s the season 4 collection of new Seattle Grace surgical interns, Dr. Lexi Grey excluded. They were primarily unnamed background presences during season 4. To the degree that any of them got significant screen time in an episode, it was a showcase for immaturity and professional incompetence. Except for Dr. Lexi Grey, all of them were gone or no longer seen by the beginning of season 6, when the Seattle Grace-Mercy West hospital merger went into effect, and a new crop of residents, formerly of Mercy West, came to the hospital in the merger (Drs. Jackson Avery, April Kepner, etc.), as well as Dr. Teddy Altman as new chief of cardio.
A big chunk of them got taken out by the hospital shooter too, if I recall.
Leah was pretty terrible. Shane was insufferable and he’s basically the reason Heather died. Minnick may have been worse.
I know I’m in the minority, I didn’t know who Catherine Tate was yet when I saw her on The Office, but I found her hilarious and and a breath of fresh air. I love James Spader but didn’t like RC, and Andy was intolerable. I appreciated her presence. Still do.
The writers failed Dawn. She had potential in Season 5, but they destroyed her in Season 6. There was a glimmer of hope for her in Season 7 in the first episode, “Lessons”, but it never eventuated. And best not to mention what they did to her in the comics.
I wonder if some of Joss’ mean-spirited actions that he directed Charisma Carpenter’s way in the writing of Cordelia were also directed at Michelle Trachtenberg.
It’s said that Joss tried it on with Michelle, and this resulted in strict supervision afterwards.
You missed Nina in FBI.
people don’t get that dawn was a in joke about adding a new character to a long running show but then became a key plot point as ‘the key’
I never understood the popularity of the original Charmed. The characters spent most of their time spewing whiny dialogue. Not very empowering.
Buffy also has had more than her share of whiny dialogue.
Yeah, yeah. If you don’t like it don’t watch.
I am not criticizing the actresses, I am criticizing the writing.
Ted McGinley gets a raw deal. He is a handsome dude, and I think is given a hard time about his acting for that very reason. Jealousy. There are a lot of far worse actors out there that don’t get nearly the amount of criticism that Ted gets.
Anytime an annoying kid joins the cast of an already good show it’s always a bad idea. But Dawn on Buffy was way worse.
1. Once Buffy’s fifth season ended, Dawn had no purpose on the show.
2. Ricardo Diaz was another example of “Arrow” writers saddling a great actor with a terrible character. They did it with Neal McCullough as Damien Darkh(although “LoT” managed to redeem Damien,) then they did it to Michael Emerson with Cayden James.
3.I don’t care what anyone says. Jefferson D’arcy was a legend. I will die on that hill.
“Jefferson D’Arcy was a legend.”- what as the first Mimbo?
I liked Little Bit. She added far more to the show than Tara, who was not noticeably harmed by Glory turning her brain to mush, and her eventual death was a blessing.
Dawn didn’t work because they had spent several seasons making the Scoobies teens a step ahead of the clueless adults. Then they added a super annoying teen, which kind of spit in what had come before, plus she was at age odds with the other characters and fans at that point. We didn’t need to go back to high school with her, nor did we need Buffy as a single mom to an ungrateful brat she wasn’t really related to. Dawn should have been a 1 season annoyance who disappeared forever halfway through season 5.
This list is still woefully incomplete to me as long as BJ Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell) is not included on it.
All the cast changes on Designing Women were terrible. But I think Jan Hooks as Carlene (a stupider, more annoying replacement for Charlene) is worse than Julia Duffy’s Sugarbaker cousin. The last couple seasons are a mess & hard to watch. They’ve should’ve ended it when Delta Burke & Jean Smart were both gone.
Ashton Kutcher in “Two and a Half Men” – he had an impossible task in replacing Charlie Sheen. They should have ended the show long before Charlie ever left.
I didn’t mind Ted McGinley as Ace on Love Boat- if he had been brought in originally to be a replacement for Gopher I would have probably felt differently. I mean he was no Issac Washington or the before mentioned Gopher but he wasn’t awful
Argument could be made that Vicki was a worse add than Ace.
Rusty on Major Crimes. Good lord, they didn’t know what to do with that boy. All of his storylines felt so forced. They couldn’t even hook him up with a believable love interest.
Also: Helen Crump. Andy could’ve done so much better!
Rusty wasn’t an addition he was part of the original cast.
Rusty from The Closer. Didn’t know what to do with him then, either.