The Best Reality TV Villains Ever
We're not here to make friends with our Best Reality TV Villains list.
Image via Complex Original
16.
It happened pretty naturally. With the advent of reality TV came the reality TV villain. Because of course—just as every story has a hero, each one has a villain. But whereas the villains of Marvel movies and the like last a short while and exist solely to illuminate the prowess of the hero, over the years, the reality TV villain became the main draw. People weren't tuning in because they wanted to see Judd and Pam develop their relationship—they were tuning in to see Puck spit on people. Did anyone really care about Lauren Conrad's "foray" into the fashion world, or did they just want to see Spencer Pratt wild out? At least when it comes to watching reality TV, hate is a much stronger impetus than admiration.
Now that the puppet masters of reality television know this, reality TV villains are given center stage, and their influence is only growing. Jax Taylor is the most magnetic character on Vanderpump Rules; the most recent season of The Bachelorette fell off a cliff after the villain Chad was sent home. But the Jaxes and Chads of modern reality TV are just following the path that villain pioneers like Puck, Survivor's Richard Hatch, and Spencer paved before them. Be confrontational, be conniving, be charismatic, and above all, be the center of attention. That's the villain way, and we're glad it exists.
Since we were in a devious, "here for the wrong reasons" mood, we put together this list of the best reality TV villains. If you disagree with any of it, invite us out for drinks to talk it out AND WE WILL THROW A MARTINI IN YOUR FACE.
15.Scott Disick
Show: Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Khloé & Lamar, Kourtney and Kim Take Miami, Kourtney and Khloé Take the Hamptons
Years Active: 2007-present
Most Villainous Moment: When he shoved money down a Las Vegas waiter's throat (Keeping Up With the Kardashians Season 4, Episode 10)
No one has evolved more on reality TV than Lord Disick. His 10-year transformation has been nothing short of a miracle, from Kourtney’s preppy mischevious boyfriend to a full-blown douchebag the Kardashians hated so much that Khloe walked out when Kourtney revealed she was pregnant, and finally, to everyone’s favorite KUWTK star with a handful of legendary one-liners. Scott’s villainous past includes, but is not limited to: shoving a $100 bill down a waiter’s throat, staying out all night while Kourtney was home with a newborn, punching a mirror after Kourtney confronted him about his partying, and mayyybeeee cheating here and there (see: Chloe Bartoli). But through all the chaos, Scott managed to clean up his act and successfully co-parent three children. Overall, he's mostly harmless—and endlessly entertaining. Did I mention his one-liners? —Katherine Calvert
14.Kristin Cavallari
Show: Laguna Beach
Years Active: 2004-2005
Most Villainous Moment: When she made out with a random in Cabo in front of Stephen (Season 1, Episode 5)
Okay, so Kristin Cavallari gets a bit of a pass considering she was only a teenager when she was on Laguna Beach, and she’s said in countless recent interviews that she was forced to be a mean girl by MTV. Still, Cavallari brought an element of “drama drama drama” that an otherwise mundane show desperately needed. When she wasn’t stealing “Stepheennn” away from the angelic LC, she was breaking hearts and dancing on the bar in Cabo. (Those show producers were working overtime to pretend they weren’t filming and witnessing 17-year-olds drinking alcohol.) Choker-queen Cavallari always got her way when it came to the guy she set her sights on—which varied by the week—and she had no problem calling people out on their shit. Remember when she told Jessica she had “no sympathy for her” after Jess got blatantly cheated on by scumbag extraordinaire Jason? And when she openly complained about Lauren’s lame-ass white party? She did all that and was still Laguna Beach High School’s most coveted prom date. Even if you were Team LC, you have to hand it to Kristin for being a real-life Regina George. —Lauren Zupkus
13.Joseline Hernandez
Show: Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta, K. Michelle: My Life, Stevie J & Joseline: Go Hollywood
Years Active: 2012-present
Most Villainous Moment: When she and Stevie attacked Benzino, Althea, and Tammy at the reunion (Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta Season 3, Episode 18)
Ah, the Puerto Rican princess, is there anyone more polarizing on the wildly successful Love & Hip-Hop franchise? LHHATL documents her turbulent relationship with Stevie J and his baby’s mother, Mimi Faust. The first few seasons of the show, Joseline is portrayed as a homewrecker (blame Stevie), someone who’s aggressive, angry, and combative (see: punching multiple people in the face); someone who is downright messy (she showed up at Mimi’s house and called her "Molly da Maid"). But after years of fighting and just trying to keep her head above water, we started to see a softer side of Joseline in Season 2 after she visited Puerto Rico, the home she was forced to leave when she was just 12 years old. We've seen why she acts out, has anger issues, and allows herself to be in an abusive relationship with Stevie. Fast-forward a few years though, and Joseline is still stirring the pot. She and Stevie lied to everyone about being married (for publicity) and she is now pregnant and wants a paternity test...from Stevie. Nothing like a new storyline! —Katherine Calvert
12.Marcel Vigneron
Show: Top Chef
Years Active: 2006-2007
Most Villainous Moment: There wasn't a specific moment, but Marcel's fellow contestants hated him so much they tried to shave his head (Season 2, Episode 11)
In terms of reality TV villains, let’s give some #realtalk: Marcel Vigneron is right where he belongs. He’s not an all-time villain like some of the people higher on this list, more of an annoying specter who haunted his season of Top Chef. As the runner up on the second season of Top Chef, Marcel annoyed his fellow contestants and the audience considerably. He was a whiny brat whose cooking skills couldn’t quite outshine his bad behavior. The tipping point was when his other contestants tried to shave his head in their shared home, an incident that ended with another contestant being kicked off the show. Marcel claimed that there was creative editing involved in the incident and that the true “drunken assault” wasn't shown. No matter the truth of the situation, Marcel was well hated by audiences, so much so that after the season aired, a woman recognized him at a club and hit him in the face with a bottle. The price of fame, I guess? —Kerensa Cadenas
11.Chad Johnson
Show: The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise
Years Active: 2016
Most Villainous Moment: When JoJo gave the very nerdy Evan a rose and Chad blurted out, "You're actually, right now, vibing this dude?" (Season 12, Episode 3)
Chad was only on four episodes of the most recent season of The Bachelorette, but that's all he needed to become an iconic villain. He was a mean, sufficiently roided up, crass bully. But what made him so great was that he did what a few other all-time reality TV villains have done: he called bullshit on the very premise of the reality show he was on. Yeah, he sounded like an asshole when he refused to say anything nice about Bachelorette JoJo in Episode 2, and when he made fun of the other guys for singing a song about JoJo—but was he wrong to question the absurd idea of love The Bachelorette promotes, or to drag a group of guys for professing their love for someone they've known for less than a week? And yeah, he looked like a dick eating a bunch of loose meat during The Bachelorette's cocktail parties—but can you really blame him for snagging a bite to eat during what is actually a night-long film shoot? It was easy to hate Chad, but it was also easy to love him. He was your cynicism personified and amplified. —Andrew Gruttadaro
10.Abby Lee Miller
Show: Dance Moms
Years Active: 2011-present
Most Villainous Moment: When she canceled recess (Season 3, Episode 28)
While she wasn’t initially supposed to be the face of Dance Moms, a wild reality show about the women behind kids who rule the dance competition scene, Abby Lee Miller’s intense teaching style (and personality) thrust her into the spotlight. It made sense, though; she herself was a dancer as a child, and at the age of 14 even set up her own dance studio underneath her mother’s company. Her time in the spotlight, however, has been downright scary. She’s never shied from calling her students “useless,” criticizing them for playing during recess (which is legitimately what kids do during recess), or using her “militant” teaching style to outright bully these kids into doing things. Sure, kids might need to be told to focus and coddling them isn’t the best way to nurture growth, but the way Abby attacks these kids? It feels like it’d do much more harm than good in the long run. Add onto this allegations of assault and a 2015 fraud indictment (which she plead guilty to for a deal), and the truth is clear: Abby Lee Miller is evil. —khal
9.Jax Taylor
Show: Vanderpump Rules
Years Active: 2013-present
Most Villainous Moment: Starting a rumor about his OWN girlfriend getting her "Kentucky Muffin" eaten by another woman (Season 5, Episode 1)
If anyone could one day upend this ranking, it would be Jax Taylor. Currently in its fifth season, Vanderpump Rules, a spinoff of sorts of the Real Housewives franchise, follows a group of ragtag servers at Beverly Hills housewife Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurant Sur. They’re a group of attractive wannabe actors/models/singers in Los Angeles, working in an alcohol fueled environment, and Jax is their core. He’s a singular reality villain, as if he was born to feud and fuck with his coworkers on television. But what makes Jax compelling is when the tiniest bits of his facade are broken down—like when we find out he was likely in a relationship with a man, or his obvious love for current girlfriend Brittany Cartwright. But then when you think maybe you’ve figured him out, he’ll snap back into Villain Mode like he's the Bruce Banner of Reality TV. The constant push and pull of Jax’s own friction between what is real vs. fake is what, once Vanderpump Rules is long over, will catapult him into reality TV history. —Kerensa Cadenas
8.Richard Hatch
Show: Survivor, Survivor: All-Stars
Years Active: 2000
Most Villainous Moment: Possibly smuggling matches up his ass (Survivor: All-Stars)
For being a villain, the very first winner of CBS’ Survivor did play a hell of a game. Not only did he help form the very first alliance on the show (which has become a series-long tradition), his shady approach to the game ended up securing him the vote in the end. Described as a “snake” in the final vote, Hatch is truly the archetype of how one plays dirty—and wins—at Survivor, but it’s his post-first season fuckery that really takes the cake. A rumor that Jeff Probst called out during Hatch’s tenure on the Survivor: All-Stars season about maybe smuggling matches “in a little container up his bum” now means that all Survivor contestants get strip-searched (interestingly enough, Hatch’s tribe couldn’t even make fire). That season was actually Hatch’s last; because he didn’t pay taxes on his Survivor winnings, he got hit with tax evasion charges, and did 51 months of federal time. This prohibited him from returning, which might be fine, because do we really need to see Hatch competing for immunity while being buck-ass naked ever again? —khal
7.Tiffany "New York" Pollard
Show: Flavor of Love, I Love New York, Celebrity Big Brother
Years Active: 2006-present
Most Villainous Moment: Pushing a contestant so far that she hawked a loogie on New York (Flavor of Love Season 1, Episode 8)
Tiffany Pollard, better known as New York, did not go on the VH1 dating show Flavor of Love to make friends, and she made that clear from the jump. Upon her arrival on the show, she literally said of the other women, “They’re like a loud pack of idiot bitches and I’m sick of them already.” The self-proclaimed—and viewer-approved—HBIC beefed with just about every single contestant while vying for the attention of Flavor Flav. The emotion behind her screaming matches made one think that maybe New York really was in love with the rapper, and not just desperate for her own spin-off show (which she got eventually anyway). New York’s most notable feud of course was with Pumkin, who spat on New York during the climax of their confrontation. As hostile as she was though, there’s always been something charming about Pollard’s upfront attitude. Unlike some reality show villains, there didn't seem to be anything calculated or conniving about her—she simply had no filter, let her emotions and insults run wild, and would never apologize or back down. Legend! —Lauren Zupkus
6.Courtney Robertson
Show: The Bachelor
Years Active: 2012-2014
Most Villainous Moment: When she literally convinced a man to propose to her (Season 16, Episode 10)
Like Chad from The Bachelorette, Courtney's villainy is rooted in the way that she stripped the show of its fairy tale. Most girls go on The Bachelor and talk about prince charming, and finding the man who she'll live happier ever after with—even though anyone with access to Google can go see how awful the show's success rate as a matchmaker is. Courtney came into Season 16 of the show with absolutely zero illusions: she was hot as hell, she wanted to be on TV, and she wanted to win. While everyone around her complained about how evil she was, or how she wasn't there for the right reasons, she was WINNING (mostly by banging Bachelor Ben Flajnik in an ocean). All these girls were trying to be Mrs. Right, but Courtney just focused on making Ben think with his dick only, and it worked! And everyone was so mad! True love was dead!
Further cementing her spot as an all-time villain, after The Bachelor Courtney wrote a book that detailed having sex with actors Jesse Metcalf and Adrian Grenier's dicks (not great and big and bushy, respectively). —Andrew Gruttadaro
5.Johnny Fairplay
Show: Survivor
Years Active: 2003-2008
Most Villainous Moment: Telling the cast that his grandmother died (Season 7, Episode 11)
First things first: Survivor: Pearl Islands contestant Jon Dalton nicknamed himself “Johnny Fairplay,” and anyone who makes up a nickname for themselves is already the worst. Fairplay became the most notorious Survivor contestant in all 33 U.S. seasons (yes, the show is still on) for staging a ruse in which he said his grandmother had died while he was on the show. It was a plan that he had calculated a long time in advance, and when Fairplay’s friend came out to the island on a reward trip, Fairplay burst into tears and pretended to be heartbroken over the tragic news. His tribemates, of course, took pity on him, but all the while, Fairplay’s grandmother was alive and well. What a jerk. Apparently Fairplay’s a villain IRL too—the show’s longtime host Jeff Probst told Entertainment Weekly that Fairplay is banned from ever attending any event that Probst is also at, because the former contestant once got into a brawl with Probst’s brother at a party. —Lauren Zupkus
4.Spencer Pratt
Show: The Hills, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Outta Here!, Celebrity Big Brother
Years Active: 2007-present
Most Villainous Moment: Probably leaking the news (or "spreading the rumor," depending whose side you're on) of Lauren Conrad's sex tape with Jason Wahler (The Hills Season 3, Episode 1)
Spencer Pratt is a product of his moment. He emerged on a reality show just as its popularity began to soar (there's a chicken-or-the-egg conversation to be had here), but more importantly, he did so in 2007. This was a time when utter devotion to reality TV was at an all-time high, a golden age defined by audiences' gullibility. Viewer cynicism—and the pre-knowledge that reality TV wasn't exactly "real"—hadn't yet formed, so Spencer found himself in the eye of perfect storm. Compared to some of the people on this list, the stuff Spencer did on The Hills and other reality shows wasn't that bad. He had a flesh-colored beard, he was kind of crazy-seeming, and he split up a Heidi Montag and LC, a duo that Hills viewers held way too dear. But because of the times, the hate directed at Spencer Pratt (and later Heidi, who he would marry) was astonishingly fierce. Now, we look back at how fun it all was and wish we could have a villain to hate now as much as we hated Spencer. For that, he deserves to be in the top five of this list. —Andrew Gruttadaro
3.Danielle Staub
Show: Real Housewives of New Jersey
Years Active: 2009-2010
Most Villainous Moment: The entirety of Season 2
A great TV villain is made up of a few things: production and editing, the villain playing their “role,” and the person actually being batshit crazy. No one played into this more than Real Housewives of New Jersey star Danielle Staub. She knew she was being portrayed as a calculating, manipulative, conniving “prostitution whore!!!” and ran with it. You always wanted her on your screen because you couldn’t believe what you were witnessing. This is a woman who tried to get her cast member’s daughter taken away from her (allegedly, *eye roll*). A woman who went to a charity dinner for a child with cancer and caused a scene. A woman who was arrested for kidnapping and beating someone with a 9mm pistol (again, allegedly) and was engaged...NINETEEN TIMES!!!!! And never forget the table flip heard ‘round the world—yep, she caused that! The only problem? She pushed her luck and none of her fellow cast members would film with her. Ultimately, they booted her in 2010 in favor of Teresa’s family and she was never heard from again. Recently, she’s been spotted hanging with Tre. I sense a return, and let’s be honest, the New Jersey franchise could use her. BRING HER BACK, ANDY. —Katherine Calvert
2.Omarosa
Show: The Apprentice, The Surreal Life, Celebrity Apprentice: All Stars
Years Active: 2004-present
Most Villainous Moment: Pouring a glass of wine on Piers Morgan's head (Celebrity Apprentice Season 7, Episode 6)
Omarosa’s villainous reputation precedes her—even if you never watched the first season The Apprentice or one of the several other reality shows she appeared on afterwards, you know her. She considers her harsh behavior simply the nature of business, but we can’t really see the business value in dumping a glass of wine on Piers Morgan’s head (although I totally get it). She made enemies with her fellow contestants at just about every turn, and had a talent for getting under people’s skin and manipulating them into looking like the bullies. For example, Omarosa pushed LaToya Jackson so far on a season of Celebrity Apprentice that Jackson commented, “Omarosa’s fiance passed away not long ago. He had a heart attack—I’m sure she gave it to him.” Even though Omarosa's reality TV days may be behind her, we’re confident she’ll continue to piss America off now that she’s President-elect Donald Trump’s director of African-American outreach. Yep. That’s real life. —Lauren Zupkus
1.Puck
Show: The Real World, Real World/Road Rules Challenge
Years Active: 1994, 1998, 2003
Most Villainous Moment: Sticking his dirty finger in the peanut butter, then immediately lying about it (Season 3, Episode 9)
While Puck wasn’t the first person to be evicted from a Real World house (that distinction goes to comedian David Edwards in Season 2), Puck’s problems with his household were much more egregious. At the time, Puck was without a doubt the worst person you could possibly live with. He was the kind of guy who took pride in the scabs and scrapes he accumulated as a bike messenger. He’d blow snot rockets on the side of the road, not wash his hands, then have his dirty fingers all up in your peanut butter. He was the kind of guy who would openly mock Pedro Zamora’s Cuban accent to his face, then leave the entire situation while the roommates hashed it out (something which The Atlantic wisely pointed out could NOT happen on reality TV today).
Ultimately, Puck is the ultimate reality TV show villain because of the sheer level of fucks he did NOT give. He was as crass, as crude, and as cruel as anyone who had been on reality TV then, and he stands the test of time, even with The Real World boasting bigger fights and dirtier people in the years following San Francisco. To this day, no one has had as huge of an impact as the disgusting filth that Puck gave the viewing public some two decades later. —khal