The 22 greatest reality TV villains of all time

Cruella de Vil, Ursula the Sea Witch, Miss Hannigan—some of pop culture’s finest villains are the ones whose chosen targets are children. Add Abby Lee Miller to the bad bunch: the demanding choreographer made many a tiny dancer cry, as well as their mothers, with her intensely militant teaching style during eight seasons of the Lifetime reality series Dance Moms. “Everyone’s replaceable!” she was known to bark at single-digit-aged students like Maddie Ziegler and Chloe Lukasiak, hot-headed outbursts that eventually landed Miller a lawsuit for assault and emotional distress from a young former pupil. That case was dismissed, but it wouldn’t be the dance instructor’s last run-in with the law: she went to jail for tax evasion in 2017. [Christina Izzo]

There are hundreds of characters in the 90 Day Fiance universe, but none is as memorable as Big Ed. He first appeared on Before The 90 Days in 2020 and has been a franchise mainstay ever since. During his first run, he lied to his partner about wanting kids, told her she had bad breath, and complained about her impoverished living conditions. Viewers were so put off they even started a petition. Since then, Ed has appeared in multiple spin-offs with his on-and-off girlfriend, Liz. Despite breaking up 11 (!) times, the two reportedly tied the knot in August. [Luke Gralia]

The Kardashians may be the queens of reality TV at this point, but Keeping Up With The Kardashians was generally notable, compared to other reality shows, for not having characters fall into the usual tropes of protagonist and antagonist. Sure, Kim is kind of the main character, but they are, ultimately, a family that will protect each other. That changed with Blac Chyna, one of the only people who has really given the Kardashians a run for their money. She married token son Rob, and they spun off into their own show that was just as volatile as their relationship. Rob & Chyna was short-lived both as a couple and a series, but the drama spun out past E! and into the court system when Chyna sued the family for defamation and interfering with her contract. Ultimately, the Kardashians won that battle too. [Drew Gillis]

When Christine Quinn announced she wasn’t returning to Netflix’s Selling Sunset after the show’s fifth season, viewers were rightfully concerned: who else would offer up the kind of artfully catty confessionals (“Every day I spend my life with these bitches in the office. I mean, that is the charity event”), explosive workplace confrontations (see: pretty much any scene involving Christine and series star Chrishell Stause) and fierce fashion moments (this is a woman who wore a pair of $50,000 black gowns to her own wedding, remember) we’ve come to expect from the Oppenheim Group’s resident troublemaker? The series simply hasn’t been the same without the extravagant chaos Quinn regularly roused among the rest of the realtors—thank the TV gods, then, for those Netflix binges. [Christina Izzo]

There were standout characters from the first three editions of The Real Housewives franchise—Vicki Gunvalson of The Real Housewives Of Orange County, Bethenny Frankel of The Real Housewives Of New York City, Nene Leakes of The Real Housewives Of Atlanta—but the Bravo behemoth only got its first real, down-and-out villain in Jersey girl Danielle Staub. The button pusher was a main cast member on RHONJ for just two seasons (she would return as a sporadic “Friend Of” in seasons 8–10), but her hair-pulling, pot-stirring legacy has lasted far longer than her tenure. After all, it was Staub who incited one of reality TV’s most famous moments: Teresa Giudice’s thundering table flip heard round the world. [Christina Izzo]

Gordon Ramsay comes by his reputation for perfectionism and anger honestly: The former footballer turned Michelin-star chef cropped up on British shows about unbearable and awful bosses years before he’d ever set foot in Hell’s Kitchen (or showed his face in 1999 docuseries Boiling Point, which brought the Ramsay persona to the masses). And yet, that same “bad boss” shtick (and its attendant platform for Ramsay’s natural showman tendencies) made him a hugely cathartic, occasionally terrifying draw over the years, whether he was screaming at reality show contestants for burning their risotto, or lambasting failing restaurateurs for failing to live up to any kind of standards on his various Kitchen Nightmares shows. Just as crucially, Ramsay has the ability to turn it off, as necessary: Kitchen Nightmares can get a little schmaltzy when its star goes sweet, but anyone who’s ever watched his gentle treatment of the kids on Masterchef Junior will grasp that the man knows exactly when, and where, a “villain” is needed—or not. [William Hughes]

The thing you need to know about Jax Taylor is that he was the most deranged person in the deranged ménagerie that is Vanderpump Rules. This isn’t hyperbole; he failed a sociopath test administered by armchair psychiatrist Stassi Schroeder during the show’s fifth season. Jax wages psychological warfare on every cast member short of Lisa Vanderpump, and half the time, it doesn’t even seem like he’s aware he’s doing it. Jax seems to have a complete obliviousness for how his actions will impact others. It probably sucks to be around him, but watching it from a distance was pretty compelling. [Drew Gillis]

Jill Zarin is something of a tragic figure. The Real Housewives Of New York City really came into itself during its third season, which featured a falling out between Jill and Bethenny Frankel as its central arc. The details about the cause of the rift are irrelevant; what matters is that Jill was so convinced that she was correct in her petty argument that she was willing to destroy her friendship with Bethenny. It must have been a hard pill to swallow when the show premiered and the edit firmly positioned her as the bad guy; she was on her best behavior for her fourth—and final—season. [Drew Gillis]

They say villains aren’t born—they’re made. When it comes to The Challenge baddie Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, that origin story seemingly began when Chris “C.T.” Tamburello famously humiliated him during 2010’s The Challenge: Cutthroat, effortlessly slinging Johnny across his spine and wearing him as a human backpack during an elimination. From then on, Bananas’ ruthlessness throughout the competition franchise cranked up to 11. He’s burned many a bridge in his 21 seasons and seven wins, the most of any challenger, but no blindside was quite as catastrophically cruel as his treatment of partner Sarah Rice in 2017’s Rivals III: Instead of splitting the season’s winnings equally with his teammate, Devenanzio wickedly chose to pocket the $275,000 all for himself. [Christina Izzo]

It was a reality feud for the ages. In one corner, you had “nice girl” Lauren Conrad, the narrator of MTV docu-soaps Laguna Beach and The Hills, and the prism through which we saw every other character on both series. In the other? “That would be Kristin,” Lauren haughtily introduces Cavallari in Laguna’s premiere. “Wherever Kristin went, drama followed. She thinks she’s hot. Okay, I guess she is, but she can’t stand me.” The root of the rivalry was, of course, a boy—popular senior Stephen Colletti—and though Conrad and Cavallari have since fessed up to the producer-led manipulations of their yearslong beef, both gamely played their parts. Feisty, filter-free and always at the ready for an argument, Kristin Cavallari manufactured a high-school mean girl to rival the best of them. [Christina Izzo]

You may hate her methods but, dammit, they get results. It was easy—and fun—to root against Lisa Rinna, but her presence brought an undeniable energy to The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills. As the Los Angeles-adjacent ladies grew into the show, they became more stagnant, often willing to sit around and do basically nothing. Rinna would never let that happen; she is a television professional, after all. Sure, sometimes she may have gone too far—did she really need to say on national television that Yolanda Hadid didn’t actually suffer from Lyme disease, but Munchausen’s?—but during her tenure on RHOBH, she always made sure there was something to talk about. As she is wont to say, “Own it!” [Drew Gillis]

RuPaul’s Drag Race began to hit its stride in season four, thanks in no small part to the rivalry between Phi Phi O’Hara and eventual winner Sharon Needles. O’Hara often let the pressure of the competition get the best of her, leading her to snap at her fellow contestants—like when she told Needles, “Go back to Party City where you belong!” The queen returned to redeem herself on All Stars 2, but ended up being the villain all over again. She has since quit drag, but now has a popular Twitch stream. [Luke Gralia]

The famous premise of The Real World was to have seven strangers move into a house to “stop being polite and start getting real.” The problem with David “Puck” Rainey is that he made things a little too real during his time on 1994’s The Real World: San Francisco. The third season was a notable one not only for the diversity of the roommates—especially the inclusion of openly gay, HIV-positive activist Pedro Zamora—but also for the hurricane of fuckery that Puck unleashed in the townhouse. Beyond having very questionable hygiene (see: frequently blowing “snot rockets,” sticking his fingers in communal peanut butter, etc), the “bad boy” bike messenger revved up drama with everyone in the cast, but most notably Pedro, with the ensuing storm of abuse and animosity leading to Puck being voted out of the house halfway through the season. [Christina Izzo]

There would be bigger villains to emerge from The Apprentice universe—a certain Cheeto-hued Commander in Chief, for instance—but Omarosa Manigault Newman was its first, a pioneering TV antagonist so noteworthy, she became known by first name alone. Well before she worked as a political aide for the aforementioned orange politician, she was using every conniving, combative tool in the box to impress then-businessman Donald Trump and sabotage her fellow competitors on the entrepreneurial NBC series. She lied, she cheated, she backstabbed, she poured a whole flute of champagne over Piers Morgan’s head. And though she was fired not once, not twice, but thrice during her Apprentice appearances, Omarosa parlayed that villainy into a decades-spanning career with far more damaging results. [Christina Izzo]

Many reality show baddies achieve their “villain” status by antagonizing their fellow contestants; far fewer by victimizing the show itself. And yet that’s exactly what happened when business consultant, amateur fisherman, and nigh-constant nudist Richard Hatch waltzed onto the set of the first Survivor in 2000—and waltzed back out a few months later with its $ 1 million prize in hand. Although Hatch did plenty of things that were just outright awful to his fellow contestants (the nudity thing was clearly as much an intimidation tactic as any sort of actual free expression) his true impact was in understanding this new genre of show far better than its actual creators did. Mark Burnett and his team had thought they had created a meritocracy about survival skills in harsh conditions; Hatch grasped that they’d actually concocted a small-scale, high-stakes political simulator. In the end, the snake successfully devoured the rat—even if, years later, the “snake” was unable to come back for at least one later season because he neglected to pay taxes on his Survivor winnings. Whoops! [William Hughes]

Season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race had some of the franchise’s most popular queens, including Alaska, Detox, and Roxxxy Andrews—who formed the mean girl trio Rolaskatox. However, Andrews was the most villainous of the group, often picking on kooky narcoleptic and eventual winner Jinkx Monsoon. She got a lot of hate from the fandom, but her appearance on All Stars 2 managed to rehabilitate her image … sort of. While she was much more likable as a character, she did much worse as a competitor, falling into the bottom almost every week. Today, though, fans still regard her as Drag Race royalty. [Luke Gralia]

She was a creationist. He was an atheist. Can I make it any more obvious? Yeah ... it was clear from the start of Love Is Blind season two that Shaina and Kyle weren’t a good match. But what’s a girl to do when the guy she actually likes is seemingly way more interested in another woman? String another man along, accept his proposal, and then ditch him in Mexico, of course! Poor Kyle even followed Shaina back to Chicago to try to work things out, even though Shaina seemed way more interested in trying to break up Shayne and Natalie so she could swoop in and get together with Shayne. Unsurprisingly, her plan completely failed, and Shaina ended the season alone. [Jen Lennon]

Every reality competition show has one categorically mean judge who seems nearly impossible to please. I don’t mean to be rude, but … none of them have managed to outdo the original. On American Idol, Simon Cowell had a knack for making contestants run out of the room crying. Who could forget such classic zingers like, “You were absolutely dreadful,” or “You couldn’t win this competition if you were the only person in it.” Cowell may have left Idol long ago, but he and his new face continue to judge America’s Got Talent. [Luke Gralia]

The Hills may have been fake, but Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt’s vicious feud with Lauren Conrad was all too real. Montag and Conrad were BFFs when the show started, but once Pratt entered the picture, things quickly went downhill. In addition to driving a wedge between the blonde besties, Pratt also started a rumor that Conrad made a sex tape with her ex, which Montag backed. It all came to a head when Conrad delivered the iconic line, “You know what you did!” Montag and Pratt are still together, and they’re still publicly shading Conrad. [Luke Gralia]

In all of the memes that her charismatic yet temperamental presence has inspired over the years—from “Bye Pumkin!” spitefulness to Beyoncé-related disbelief—one indelible image sums up Tiffany “New York” Pollard’s time on the VH1 dating competition Flavor Of Love: a GIF of her wielding a steak knife, manicured French tips tapping against the blade and a knowing smirk set on her face. It was that combination of cocksure posturing (she proudly proclaimed herself the house HBIC, a.k.a. “Head Bitch in Charge’’), caustic edge and comedic timing (“Good morning, good morning. Not you, you can choke’’) that made Pollard’s animated villainy transcend TV history and live on forever in internet infamy. [Christina Izzo]

The facial hair alone should have tipped us off: a villain is only as bad as his worst mustache and the follicular nonsense that Tom Sandoval unveiled on his face in Vanderpump Rules’ seismic 10th season was just the clue we needed that something sinister was underfoot in the SUR Cinematic Universe. By now, the world is well aware of the specifics of #Scandoval—Sandoval’s shocking months-long affair with Rachel (née Raquel) Leviss, the “best friend” of his partner of nearly a decade, Arianna Madix—but the sheer scope of the infidelity and Tom’s seeming lack of remorse about the whole ordeal made it clear that the disgraced star’s villainy stretched further than we thought, a long history of gaslighting, exploitation and egotism hurled against his past romantic partners and Pump Rules castmates. You know you’re a bad guy when you’re making Jax Taylor and James Kennedy look good. [Christina Izzo]

America’s Next Top Model has had its fair share of villains—there was Jade “This isn’t America’s Next Top Best Friend” Cole, Lisa Who Peed In A Diaper, and Monique the fake bedwetter. But somehow, none of them have come close to Tyra Banks herself. Banks’ completely bonkers screaming match with cycle four contestant Tiffany is the stuff of internet legend, but she also once tried to make cycle six’s Danielle close the gap in her teeth to make her more attractive, showed a shocking lack of empathy when Adrienne was groped on the way to a go-see in cycle one, and didn’t really seem to care all that much when Keenyah was sexually harassed by a male model at a photoshoot in cycle four. Repeat viewings of ANTM, especially the early seasons, have been eye-opening for a lot of people. Maybe it’s actually Tyra who needs to learn something from this. [Jen Lennon]