20 of the Most Useless Characters in TV History

Over the course of multiple seasons, any ensemble cast is eventually going to end up pulling some dead weight. There’s only so much storyline time to go around, and some characters are going to get the shaft. This often ends up being any children in the main cast, because it’s just a lot harder to go on wild adventures with some toddler who has to pee every five minutes, but it can also be anyone who tests poorly with audiences.

“The first characters that come to my mind are Nikki and Paulo from Lost,” Redditor TremontRemy recently mused. “They had no purpose or function for the progress of the show at all and acted like cheap replacements for Boone and Shannon, two former and more likable and developed characters.” They also cited Celia Solis from Desperate Housewives, explaining that “there were many kids on the show that barely got any screen time and were still more memorable than her. The writers should’ve just made Juanita the only daughter, and it wouldn’t have changed ANYTHING.”

They then asked r/Television, “What’s a TV character that is so useless you could easily replace them with a lamp?” and Redditors came back with plenty of boring babies, casting cast-offs and one seriously maddening king.