With rare exceptions, most television series want you to like their lead characters. They want you to identify with the lead, or invest in their journey, or find them charming or endearing. But it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes lead characters start out well enough, and over time their flaws become harder to ignore, their behaviors increasingly maddening. Sometimes a lead is put forward as deliberately antagonistic to the viewer, as a kind of love-to-hate figure. And still other times, the creators of a show completely miscalculate how an audience will react to a character they themselves believe in. Over the past few decades, television has seen an explosion in deeply unlikable main characters. So join us as the Great Pop Culture Debate considers the Worst Lead Character in a TV Series.

Characters discussed: Rachel Berry (“Glee”), Piper Chapman (“Orange is the New Black”), Ross Gellar (“Friends”), Kate Austen (“Lost”), Jerry Seinfeld (“Seinfeld”), Andy Bernard (“The Office”), Dr. Meredith Grey (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Hannah Horvath (“Girls”), Carrie Bradshaw (“Sex and the City”), Ted Mosby (“How I Met Your Mother”), Sheldon Cooper (“The Big Bang Theory”), Alan Harper (“Two and a Half Men”), Dawson Leery (“Dawson’s Creek”), Ally McBeal (“Ally McBeal”), Rory Gilmore (“Gilmore Girls”), Zack Morris (“Saved by the Bell”)

Join host Eric Rezsnyak and GPCD panelists Amma Marfo, Kara Austin, and Kevin Dillon as they discuss 16 of the biggest jerks to ever helm a TV series.

Play along at home by finding the listener bracket here. Make a copy for yourself, fill it out, and see if your picks match up with ours!

For the warm-up to this episode, in which we discuss even more unlikable TV leads that didn’t make the bracket, become a Patreon supporter of the podcast today.

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Host: Eric Rezsnyak

Panelists: Amma Marfo, Kara Austin, Kevin Dillon

Producer: Derek Mekita

Editor: Bob Erlenback

Theme Music: “Dance to My Tune” by Marc Torch

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