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When You’re Hot, You’re Hot… When You’re Not, You’re On This List of Characters Who Fizzled Rather Than Sizzled
Friday, September 24th, 2021
Sometimes, even a strong actor can’t save a weak character.
Every now and then, the headwriter of a soap sits down and says, “I’m going to create a character so awful that everyone in town will want to see them dead and we’ll do a great murder mystery.” But sometimes, they introduce a character they truly believe is going to be embraced by the audience… only to find out later that viewers would very much like the newbie gone.
Turns out, there’s a difference between characters we love to hate and those we simply flat-out hate.
And once the audience turns on a character, it can be darn near impossible to change their mind (especially in the age of social media). Occasionally, the folks behind the scenes will put up a good fight, somehow convinced that over time, the situation will change. More often than not, however, they’re wrong.
More: Legendary actress’ disastrous daytime run
Join us now as we look at some of the characters for whom the Welcome Wagon was never rolled out. From a wildly popular General Hospital actor’s disastrous turn as a doppelgänger to a Bold & Beautiful ingenue who didn’t even stick around long enough to earn a last name. Our collection also includes a time-warping Another World villain, a Young & Restless vixen who couldn’t scheme her way out of the corner she was written into, and a flame-haired Days of Our Lives beauty who never sparked with the audience.
Check out the gallery below to see the 20 or so characters who made our list of daytime’s least wanted, then hit the comment section to tell us who you think we left off. (Because if there’s one thing we know, it’s that when it comes to unpopular characters, you have a thought or two!) Who knows, maybe you’ll not only inspire a follow-up article but be quoted in it!
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
1/20
<p>Characters don’t come more iconic than <em>General Hospital</em>‘s Luke Spencer. The same cannot be said for his lookalike cousin or, for that matter, any of the Eckerts who came to town in 1991. It was both ironic and weirdly appropriate that two years later, Bill would die in the arms of his newly returned cuz.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
2/20
<p>Although she hit Genoa City with a legendarily malevolent husband, adorable moppet and lust-filled backstory, Elizabeth Leiner’s <em>Young & Restless </em>alter ego was soon reduced to a Kyle-obsessed vixen who wasn’t really all that vixenish. </p>
Image: ABC
3/20
<p>Yes, this is a two-for-one offering. If you looked at the photo and instantly thought “Greg and Jenny,” consider yourself forgiven… especially since that’s clearly what <em>All My Children</em>‘s writers hoped would happen. Ultimately, the pairing didn’t even prove worthy of an interesting exit — no exploding jet ski death for her! Instead, they just married and relocated to Paris.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
4/20
<p>Truth be told, you’re probably more likely to remember the endlessly discussed elephant statue sought by the ex-girlfriend of <em>Days of Our Lives</em>‘ Eric Brady than you are the character played by Melissa Archer, who’d been so popular as <em>One Life to Live</em>‘s Natalie. </p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
5/20
<p>Long before finding fame as <em>Jane the Virgin</em>, Gina Rodriguez played a young woman befriended by <em>Bold & Beautiful</em>‘s Stephanie Forrester. For a hot second, Beverly — who never got a last name — became the focus of a <em><span style="text-decoration: line-through">Afterschool Special</span></em> social-issues storyline regarding kids who age out of the foster-care system before disappearing entirely. </p>
Image: Arthur L. Cohen/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
6/20
<p>For some reason, the audience never really took to <em>Another World</em>‘s body-borrowing, time-travelling, heroine-kidnapping hunk who would eventually — we kid you not — be sucked into a rip in the space/time continuum located in a secret garden on the Cory estate. On the plus side, the part perfectly prepared portrayer David Andrew Macdonald to play <em>Guiding Light</em>‘s maniacal Prince Edmund Winslow, who was downright stable by comparison.</p>
Image: Doug Piborn/JPI, John Paschal/JPI
7/20
<p>Soon after arriving in Port Charles, the never-before-mentioned sister of <em>General Hospital</em>‘s Emily Quartermaine grew tired of everyone comparing her to her late twin (whom Natalia Livingston had played for five years). Less than a year later, that stopped being an issue when the character was shipped off to Paris, never to be mentioned again.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
8/20
<p>Soap-hopping bad girl Sheila Carter is currently telling anyone who’ll listen that she deserves to be part of son John “Finn” Finnegan’s life on <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>. Oddly, not once during the nurse-turned-waitress’ current stint has she mentioned her <em>Young & Restless </em>daughter, who most definitely wasn’t as popular — even in a love-to-hate-her way — as Mommie Fearest. (For that matter, Sheila also hasn’t mentioned Daisy’s twin brother, Ryder, or their half siblings, Mary and Diana… ) </p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
9/20
<p>Sexy? Check. Great hair? Check. Welcomed by fans as a new member of <em>Ryan’s Hope</em>‘s titular clan? Not so fast. Turns out viewers weren’t thrilled with the idea of beloved patriarch Johnny having an illigitimate son. If they’d had their druthers, the Johnny’s-offspring-come-lately (far left) would have been edited out of the family portrait. </p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
10/20
<p>Maybe it was the fact that she and brother Rex were introduced as aluminum-foil-wrapped aliens. Maybe it was that she very nearly bedded half brother Lucas Horton. Whatever the reason, by the time Cassie’s supposedly dead body fell out of a pinata, viewers were pretty much over her. Though she — like the other Salem Stalker victims — later turned up alive, the character’s days were numbered, and she left town soon after.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
11/20
<p>As often happens with have-nots on <em>Bold & Beautiful</em>, this firefighter’s story went up in smoke relatively quickly. But he did not go alone when he left: Babymama Samantha Kelly (soap vet Sydney Penny) and her manipulative mom Priscilla (Linda “Sue Ellen” Grey) also proved to have incredibly short shelf lives. </p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
12/20
<p>She may have been introduced as Brady Black’s literal dream girl on <em>Days of Our Lives</em>, but<em> </em>the daughter Maggie Horton had given up for adoption years earlier proved something of a nightmare for the residents of Salem. </p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
13/20
<p>Introduced in 2014, Linda Elena Tovar’s <em>General Hospital </em>character was blackmailed by several characters because of a dark secret from her past. Although we’d eventually find out she and Brad Cooper had married in order to avoid having to testify against one another, Rosalie vanished and the story was dropped before we ever found out what crime they’d committed!</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI, Ray Christian/JPI, Howard Wise/JPI
14/20
<p>Vail Bloom. Jennifer Landon. Eden Riegel. It didn’t much matter who played the part of Paul’s daughter on <em>The Young and the Restless</em>, the audience never took to the character (or her romance with Adam Newman). When even the actress who was beloved as <em>All My Children</em>‘s Bianca can’t give viewers a heroine addiction, you know something’s not working. </p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
15/20
<p>“I prefer to be addressed as madame or Countess,” said this doppelganger of Another World’s Rachel Cory upon her introduction. But by the time she’d kidnapped Rachel, been hit by a train and terrorized half of Bay City, viewers were pretty much addressing her as “that over-the-top crazy chick.” </p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
16/20
<p>For some reason, <em>Bold & Beautiful </em>fans didn’t want to see Phoebe Forrester hook up with an unemployed, homeless dude who hoped to blackmail her mom with the knowledge that she’d run down Darla Forrester. Six months later, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound following a struggle for the weapon with Ridge Forrester (then Ronn Moss). </p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
17/20
<p>Despite only being on air for about three months, the secret daughter of <em>General Hospital</em>‘s Helena Cassadine was known as The Woman in White, Cassandra <em>and</em> Irina… yet still managed to be the least interesting member of her legendary family right up until the moment Mom had her murdered. </p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
18/20
<p>After being runner-up on the third season of <em>American Idol</em>, Diana DeGarmo hit <em>Young & Restless </em>as a songbird whose mafioso pop forced Kevin Fisher to marry his talent-free daughter. The audience was almost as thrilled by this story as Kevin clearly is in this photo.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
19/20
<p>How can you tell that the brother of <em>As The World Turns</em>‘ Mike Kasnoff wans’t as popular as his sibling? While Mike would have a long list of lovers and be played by three different actors over a period of nearly 15 years, poor Mark had basically one love interest and exited Oakdale after two years. </p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
20/20
