TV boyfriends, what are we going to do with you?
While our favorite TV shows sometimes feature toxic relationships due to behavior by both partners, we wanted to take the time to determine which TV boyfriends in particular are to blame for their respective relationship woes. We have gathered up all the worst guys from good shows that made us want to scream at the TV, stage interventions for our beloved (fictional) friends and swear men off forever!
This round-up of 35 truly lousy TV boyfriends spans murderous men (on YOU), animated boy toys (Harley Quinn), presidential man-babies (Scandal), highly sus vacation flings (The White Lotus) and a perhaps-controversial pick from Sex and the City.
To be sure, not all bad boyfriends are created equal. Their poor behavior exists on a spectrum, making some hard to spot. We’ve included the truly toxic, the unacceptably annoying, and the mean, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad beaus. Like, if he’s done one of our favorite characters wrong, he’s on this list. But to be clear, this is about guys who were bad at being boyfriends; not bad guys who happened to be boyfriends or beaus who were revealed to be outright villains. Got it?
View our 35 picks below, then hit the comments to call out your most memorably bad boyfriends from TV history.
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Aidan Shaw, Sex and the City
Image Credit: HBO Screenshot Aidan’s got all the makings of a Worst TV Boyfriend. He pulls you in with the nice guy facade, but later reveals himself to be an immature menace. He criticizes Carrie left and right, once even forcefully slapping a nicotine patch on her shoulder. He springs a marriage proposal onto her while picking up his dog’s fecal matter. (Ew!) He questions why Miranda would choose to have an abortion (“Can’t she just give it Charlotte?” he says, which causes Carrie to lie about her own abortion). He decides to “forgive” Carrie for her indiscretions, only to constantly manipulate her with threats that he’ll go and sleep with a hot bartender. A wolf in sheep’s saggy, white underwear!
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Avery, Nashville
Image Credit: Courtesy of Katherine Bomboy-Thornton/Everett Collection Yes, Jonathan Jackson’s character eventually became a loving and supportive husband to Hayden Panettiere’s Juliette. But way back at the country-music drama’s start, he was Scarlett’s sleazy boyfriend with a roving eye and a creative interpretation of monogamy.
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Ben Hope, Heartstopper
Image Credit: Netflix screenshot Charlie Spring may have wound up with the best boyfriend ever (we heart you, Nick Nelson!). But before reaching the stupendously happy ending of the Netflix hit’s Season 1, Charlie dated this d-bag, a closeted schoolmate who in public pretended not to know him and in private insisted that, despite their frequent kiss-and-don’t-tell sessions, “I never liked you, I’m not even gay, I just felt really sorry for you.” Sure, Jan.
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Bevers, Broad City
Image Credit: Comedy Central screenshot It’s not even fair that Abbi had to be subjected to this stoutly built moocher — because she never chose to date him! Instead, Bevers was the boyfriend of Abbi’s roommate, but she was never around, so he became Abbi’s roommate by default, lounging around in his underwear and freely helping himself to Abbi’s snacks. With a number of very gross personal habits we won’t mention here, Bevers was basically a nightmare roommate… except he never paid rent. Now we know why Abbi’s roommate never showed her face.
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Cole Turner, Charmed
Image Credit: Courtesy of Paramount Television/Everett Collection Every guy on this list is a walking nightmare, but only one is a literal demon. Cole’s relationship with Phoebe was one for the ages, and while we’d be lying if we said we didn’t root for them (on occasion), his bad behavior far outweighed his good deeds. Lying about being a flame-throwing assassin sent to kill her? Red flag. Actually trying to kill her and her sisters on multiple occasions? Red flag! Tricking her into a dark wedding ceremony and impregnating her with the future source of all evil? You know where this is going.
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Chuck Bass, Gossip Girl
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Chuck met his match in Blair Waldorf. They were both manipulative and egotistical, so it’s no surprise that their relationship was toxic. That said, Ed Westwick’s character did far worse things to Blair (like that time he slept with Jenny Humphrey to get back at her, whattt??) than she did to him. What possibly takes the cake, though? The time he “traded” Blair for ownership of a hotel.
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Dan Scott, One Tree Hill
Image Credit: Courtesy of The WB/Everett Collection The boys of Tree Hill may have been clueless when it came to relationships, but their teen trauma pales in comparison to the heinous acts committed over multiple decades by the town’s OG bad boyfriend Dan Scott. Just ask poor Karen, who was dumped as a pregnant teenager by Dan when they were both in high school. And when Karen finally found happiness with Dan’s brother Keith — nearly 18 years later — a jealous Dan shot him in cold blood, then exploited Karen’s grief as a means to rekindle their relationship. Sure, he got what was coming to him in the end, but we’re shocked that he managed to survive nearly all nine seasons.
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Dawson, Dawson's Creek
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Dawson was often self-involved, but when he and Joey finally entered a romantic relationship in Season 2, his personality flaw became especially pronounced as a boyfriend. We’re still angry about the time he invaded Joey’s privacy by reading her diary, then having the gall to get mad at her for what she wrote about his filmmaking skills in what was obviously just her venting (in her private journal) after a bad day.
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Dennis Duffy, 30 Rock
Image Credit: Courtesy of Nicole Rivelli/Everett Collection If there were a Mount Rushmore of bad TV boyfriends, this obnoxious man-child’s face would be carved on it in granite. It’s a sign of Liz Lemon’s crushingly low self-esteem that she put up with a woefully ignorant and wildly immature beeper salesman (“Technology is cyclical!”) who lovingly referred to her as “Dummy.” She did break things off with him in Season 1, but he kept coming back like a stubborn pimple — with which he shared roughly the same IQ. If you can think of a worse fictional boyfriend, feel free to beep us.
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Derwin Davis, The Game
Image Credit: Netflix screenshot When it came to his relationship with Melanie, the footballer fumbled at almost every turn. Remember that time he got jealous that she was hanging out with her good friend Trey Wiggs and told her to stop seeing him? Or when he straight up lied about the flirty exchanges with Drew Sidora and then cheated with said singer? It’s hard to see the good things he did, like paying for Melanie’s tuition, because of how jealous he was throughout their relationship, and how he always expected her to drop everything for him and often failed to consider her needs. Sure, they were both messy — Melanie secretly DNA testing his son was inexcusable — but if we’re keeping score, Derwin came out being the actual worst.
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Desi, Girls
Image Credit: HBO Screenshot Desi is a whirling manipulator wreaking havoc wherever he goes. Remember when he punched and shattered a window while screaming expletives at Hannah and Marnie, who had only a rubber spatula to defend themselves? He’s a cheater and unreliable and irresponsible, both in romance and in business. Another bad boyfriend move: Stranding Marnie in New Jersey (of all places!), forcing her to perform on stage with her mother. He’s really just an all-around bad time.
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Don Draper, Mad Men
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection If the ad man was going to cheat on wife Betty, couldn’t he at least have been a better boyfriend to the various women he strung along over the years? He was emotionally and/or physically unavailable — and often super drunk — the entire time he was with Midge, Rachel Menken, Sally’s teacher, Dr. Faye… the list goes on. We know a Draper dismissal hurts, ladies, but take heart: You dodged a bullet.
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Doug Simpson, The Brady Bunch
Image Credit: Paramount+ screenshots The Big Man on Campus turned out to be a big… jerk… when Marcia’s football-busted beak led him to fib that “something suddenly came up,” and he had to break their date. Luckily, Marcia after her schnoz quickly healed rebuffed Doug’s change of heart and instead said yes to good guy Charlie, who after all had effused, “Marcia, I want to take out all of you. Not just your nose!”
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Duncan, Veronica Mars
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection The show tried to sell us on the idea of Duncan as Veronica’s “safe” love interest (well, compared to Bad Boy Logan), but since when does lying to your girlfriend about your comatose ex-girlfriend being pregnant with your baby make you a good boyfriend? When Duncan fled town with his daughter, we were all too happy to wave goodbye to him.
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Dylan McKay, Beverly Hills, 90210
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fox/Everett Collection Best friends at odds over West Beverly High’s most rebellious loner? Not surprising. But let’s be real: A bad boy with daddy issues and an alcohol problem? Not really Grade-A boyfriend material. While he did make for some great TV (we loved watching Luke Perry go full James Dean for the role), there’s a zero percent chance we’d want our offspring dating a Dylan McKay type. Maybe he wasn’t “bad” all the time, but still: Dude had a lot of baggage.
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Fisher, Roseanne
Image Credit: Peacock screenshot Yes, we see the irony in applauding Dan for beating up his sister-in-law’s abuser, but let’s not sit here and pretend he didn’t have it coming. One needn’t look further than the bruises on Jackie’s back to know that Fisher was trash. Not only did he do enough physical damage to send Roseanne’s sister to the emergency room, but the emotionally manipulative creep led her to believe that she deserved to be pummeled.
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Fitz, Scandal
Image Credit: Hulu Screenshot Fitz is a whining, president-baby who needed to focus on running the country and just let Olivia Pope do her job. Did he ever do anything in the Oval Office besides be a bad boyfriend? He was so busy playing games, constantly pushing Olivia away just to pull her back in at the last minute. He was so bad at managing his personal affairs/affairs, it’s truly shocking he managed to avoid a coup during his fictional presidency.
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Gary Marshall Borders, Tyler Perry's Sistas
Image Credit: Courtesy of BET If a man being married is a dealbreaker for you, this one’s already out the window. If you’re willing to stick it out until he leaves his wife, you’re still in for a relationship built on jealousy, suspicion and control. (And insane abs, but that’s beside the point.) This duplicitous hottie will buy you a multi-million dollar penthouse apartment… but he’ll make sure it’s close enough to his office that he can use a comically large telescope to see into your windows.
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Jack, The White Lotus
Image Credit: Courtesy of Stefano Delia/HBO Although their vacation-ship was short lived, Leo Woodall’s Jack managed to do lots of damage within the few days he spent with Portia. He had entirely too much to drink, yelled at her, kidnapped her, lied to her and pressured her into a bunch of unsafe situations. He did attempt to redeem himself at the end of the season by releasing Portia and helping her escape — but could he not have done that a little closer to the airport?
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Jess, Gilmore Girls
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Oh Jess, Jess, Jess. Was it your inability to apologize, your anger issues, your bad communication skills, or your horrible treatment of all women and any authority that got you on this list? Nope. Although all those things are awful, you’re here because you pressured Rory to do things she didn’t want to — like have sex — which has gained you the title of one of the worst boyfriends on television. Even Milo Ventimiglia’s charisma couldn’t save his insufferable Gilmore Girls character.
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Joe Goldberg,YOU
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix Whether you think the guy is a sociopath or a psychopath is irrelevant… because he’s also a murderer! Enough said.
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The Joker, Harley Quinn
Image Credit: Courtesy of HBO Max The very impetus for HBO Max’s adult animated series is that it follows a Harley who realized that the Joker is quite the wild card as a boyfriend — and that Ivy, all along, can fill her needs better. We haven’t seen much of Harley and Joker as a couple, but the series premiere alone made it clear that with the clown prince of crime at her side, Harley was dealt a bad hand.
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Kelso, That '70s Show
Image Credit: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Everett Collection Remember that time Jackie caught Kelso making out with Pam Macy behind the gym? Or when he started sneaking around behind Jackie’s back with Eric’s sister Laurie? Yeah, Kelso was a horndog. It’s no wonder he and Jackie were heading into their second remarriage in the That ‘90s Show premiere.
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Marc, This Is Us
Image Credit: Courtesy of NBC Lord knows, the way Marc food- and body-shamed teenage Kate was bad enough. But when he forced her out of the car, leaving her on the remote, dark road to the Pearson cabin, just because she wanted to quit her job with him at the record store? Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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Matt, Life and Beth
Image Credit: Courtesy of Jeong Park/Hulu Salesmen are supposed to be really good at clocking people’s reactions, right? So how come Kerig’s (not Keurig’s) top wine pusher can’t read the room enough to figure out that his longtime girlfriend a) doesn’t want to marry him, and b) really doesn’t want him to propose in a Long Island bar on the day of her mother’s funeral?
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Nate Jacobs, Euphoria
Image Credit: Courtesy of Eddy Chen/HBO There are so many things wrong with Nate. Beyond being a bad boyfriend, he is just a horrible human being. Jacob Elordi’s character cheats on his on-again, off-again girlfriend Maddy, whom he physically and verbally assaults and continues to play mind games with, even when they aren’t dating. Saying that Nate is a bad boyfriend is like saying the sky is blue or saying grass is green. It’s an obvious fact. Indisputable!
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Nico Kim, Grey's Anatomy
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC OK, we’ll grant you that the orthopedic surgeon had moments when he was tolerable. But when his shirt was on, he was hella obnoxious, whether refusing to play “gay sherpa” and lead Levi Schmitt out of the closet or shrugging off his eventual boyfriend’s observation that he’d never given up on his boo when Nico had been in pain. “I guess that’s the difference between me and you,” the ice-cold hottie said. One of many, pal. One of many.
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Paolo, Friends
Image Credit: Warner Bros. TV screenshot Ciao! Just when Ross seemed like he might actually have a shot with Rachel in Season 1, she fell into the brawny arms of this sleazy Italian dude. He and Rachel had a brief but passionate affair, even though he barely spoke English, while Ross could only watch and fume from the sidelines. Paolo revealed himself to be a true creep, though, when he hit on Phoebe during a massage. Well, good thing “ciao” means hello and goodbye.
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Phil DeMars, Greenleaf
Image Credit: OWN screenshot Long on ambition and short on spine, Charity Greenleaf’s boyfriend dumped her to further his career by becoming engaged to the boss’ insufferable daughter. From there, he only got worse, ultimately becoming someone that his ex didn’t even recognize. “This person, I can’t even hate,” Charity marveled in the OWN drama’s final season. “It’d be like hating a sponge, just some passive, porous thing.” Amen!
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Puddy, Seinfeld
Image Credit: Courtesy of Carin Baer/Everett Collection “Yeah, that’s right.” Sure, he was a truth teller (casually noting that Elaine will go to Hell, since she doesn’t believes in God), but Puddy’s incredibly annoying habits (the overzealous high-fives!) and refusal to ditch that fur coat made him not worth the effort (or a sponge).
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Roy, The Office
Image Credit: Courtesy of Chris Haston /Everett Collection Pam’s mouthbreather of a fiancé never really cared about her interests (remember that drive-by at her art show?) and always paled in comparison to the sweetly devoted Jim. But Roy’s violent reaction upon finding out about his lady’s workplace crush was unacceptable: He deserved far worse than Dwight’s pepper spray and a swift firing.
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Tariq, Abbott Elementary
Image Credit: Hulu screenshot Do we actually kind of love Janine’s aspiring rapper ex-boyfriend? Yes, we do. But that’s exactly how we prefer him — as her ex. Their toxic relationship was cursed from the start and is best summarized by this direct quote from the man himself: “You know I’m a feminist, that’s why I let you pay for all my stuff.” Watching Tariq constantly taking advantage of Janine was a total bummer, Zack Fox’s undeniable charm be damned!
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Thad Steadman, Younger
Image Credit: Courtesy of TV Land/Everett Collection We knew this finance bro was trouble when he walked in, so we weren’t entirely surprised when Kelsey’s boyfriend filmed himself having sex with another woman in the bathroom at work, or even when he blackmailed Kelsey’s best friend after discovering her most personal secret. Some guys just deserve to get crushed to death by fallen scaffolding, and Thad was definitely one of them.
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Xander Harris, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Image Credit: Courtesy of Greg Lavy/20th Century Fox/Everett Collection Xander taking so long to see what was right in front of him — that his childhood best friend was crushing hard on him — was more than suspect. It foreshadowed things to come. When he finally opened his eyes to notice (and kiss) poor Willow, it was at the expense of his cheerleading girlfriend Cordelia Chase, and boy, did that get messy. As if Xander’s lack of experience with the ladies and selfishness couldn’t get any worse, let’s never, ever forget: HE LEFT HIS TRUE LOVE ANYA AT THE FRIGGIN’ ALTAR. It’s been more than 20 years and we still haven’t forgiven him for that one.
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Zack Morris, Saved By the Bell
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection We all know Zack Morris is Trash with a capital T. There’s even a web series to prove it! Just look at how he went about making future wife Kelly Kapowski his girlfriend. For him, it was all about the game — and, most importantly, about beating Slater to the punch. He saw the Bayside cheerleader as an object he could win over, not as an actual human being. Because again — and we can’t stress this enough — Zack Morris is Trash.
