Many TV series, especially those that run for many seasons, quickly become part of the audience's daily lives and win their hearts. As a result, people become hooked on these shows and tend to protect them at all costs. For months, they follow the characters they have grown to love, choosing their favorites and rooting for the romantic stories they like the most. Not only that: audiences also like to hate, because no series is exempt from having characters and events that annoy people.

As in life, TV shows feature many characters with very different personalities, and depending on our personality, we feel more or less compatible with each one of them. That is why the characters who are hated in TV series are not always the same for everybody, and many times, those who are loathed by some are conversely loved by others. Not all characters earn the audience's hatred for the same reasons. Some were created as the story's villains, so they are expected to arouse those kinds of feelings in the audience. Others are simply irritating, or fail to convince the audience with their personalities.

And then there are those that people just hate for the sake of it, without an explanation. So, just as fans cheer for their favorite characters, they also disown the ones they don't like. This is, of course, leaving aside the actors who play those roles, who generally do an impeccable job and, in fact, tend to be completely different from the roles they play. Although it mostly happens with supporting characters, sometimes, the main characters of a show are the ones who get labeled as the most hated. Check out 10 of them here.

10 Eric Forman — That '70s Show

Eric Foreman in That '70s Show
The Carsey-Werner Distribution

Eric Forman is perhaps the most important character on That '70s Show, and yet the least popular one of the ensemble among the audience. This character, played by Topher Grace, is lazy, irresponsible with other people's feelings, and more than once displayed poor attitudes towards Donna, whom he constantly tries to control, and later abandons before their wedding. At the end of the show's seventh season, Eric leaves to work as a teacher in Africa and only comes back for the series finale. While he is mentioned throughout the final season, the show was able to run its course as normal without his presence.

Related: 7 Times That Characters Leveled Up Our Favorite TV Shows

9 Nate Jacobs — Euphoria

Nate Jacobs from Euphoria
HBO

In Euphoria, Jacob Elordi plays Nate Jacobs, probably one of the most fearsome characters in a teen series. From the very beginning of the show, Nate emerges as a strong candidate to become the production's most hated character: he emotionally manipulates people to get what he wants, treats women badly, behaves violently, and shows clear anger issues and toxic masculinity patterns. Throughout the course of Euphoria, it is revealed that this character has a traumatic relationship with his family, although this does not excuse him from being an obnoxious, highly dangerous young man, who refuses to take responsibility for the things he does, exhibiting several red flags.

8 April Kepner — Grey's Anatomy

April Kepner from Grey's Anatomy
ABC

In Grey's Anatomy's sixth season, Sarah Drew was added to the cast as April Kepner, a character who would initially appear in the show for only a few episodes, but ended up turning into one of the main characters for many seasons. Although she gradually started to win over the audience as each season went by, she was considered one of the most annoying characters of the show for a long time. Compared to the rest of the doctors, April was boring, insecure, and at times overly exaggerated in tense situations. This attitude also annoyed some of the doctors in the hospital, who were already popular with the audience. Although it is true that she changed and further enhanced her strengths throughout the show, she did exhibit a few questionable and selfish behaviors that prevented her from becoming one of the audience's favorites.

7 Andy Bernard — The Office

Andy Bernard from The Office
NBCUniversal Television Distribution

The third season of The Office introduced Andy Bernard, Regional Director in Charge of Sales at Dunder Mifflin's Stamford branch, and from the very beginning audiences hated him. This character, played by Ed Helms, was annoying, obnoxious, self-important and quite a suck-up, and even though The Office was filled with characters that were far from likable, he failed to endear himself to the audience. Nor did his luck improve over the seasons: although the character underwent a major change after he was sent to anger management training, he kept on showing those traits that made him unlikable, and not even his romantic storylines with other popular characters were able to vindicate him. By the show's final season, he reverts into his old habits and becomes even more insufferable.

Related: The Office: 6 Moments That Would Not Fly Today

6 Alan Harper — Two and a Half Men

Alan Harper from Two and a Half Men
CBS

Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer were the original stars of Two and a Half Men. In this show, Cryer is Alan, a man who, thrown out of his home by his wife, moves in with his brother Charlie despite the latter's objections. While the audience empathized with Alan at the beginning of the show, they soon grew to despise him: this character is hypocritical, cheap, and pretentious, and being able to support himself, Alan expects his brother to do it for him, as if Charlie owes it to him. Eventually, Charlie's character is cut from the series, and unlike what was expected, Cryer does not take over the show: they added a new main character, millionaire Walden Schmidt, played by Ashton Kutcher. Somehow, Alan manages to avoid having to support himself, and starts living off this millionaire.

5 Rachel Berry — Glee

Lea Michele as Rachel Berry in Glee.
Fox Network

It is safe to say that Lea Michele is extremely talented, and that her character on the teen show Glee was one of the most gifted ones in Mr. Schue's musical club. However, she was also one of the most hated characters throughout the seasons. There are many reasons why Rachel Berry gradually earned the hatred of the show's fans, and most of them have to do with her dramatic and self-centered attitude. Rachel knows she is an excellent singer, and she is deserving of the acclaim she gets on the show. However, she tries her best to be the center of attention, and despite being part of a group where everyone is supposed to shine, she fails to recognize other people's talents or allow them to shine as much as she does.

4 Ted Mosby — How I Met Your Mother

Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother
20th Television

Ted Mosby is How I Met Your Mother's main character, and over the course of the show, he recounts to his children the story of how he met their mother, sharing anecdotes about his friends and occasional love affairs. He is played by Josh Radnor, with Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris, and Alyson Hannigan joining him in the cast. Despite being the main character, much of the audience found it very difficult to root for him as he tried to find his ideal woman for a number of reasons. Throughout the show, Ted displays extremely negative attitudes towards women, demanding perfection, and giving very little of himself, or insisting too much on women who are not interested. His obsession with Robin leads him to do some pretty questionable things, and the fact that he goes back to her after his wife passed away utterly disappointed the audience.

3 Piper Chapman — Orange Is the New Black

Piper Chapman from Orange is the New Black
Netflix

Orange Is the New Black is a series that takes place mostly inside Litchfield Penitentiary, and features many characters with burdensome backstories, who have committed unspeakable crimes. However, the most hated character of the whole series is probably the most harmless one: Piper Chapman, its main character. She arrives at the prison filled with fears, not knowing what would be waiting for her after such a privileged life, and as the seasons went by, her selfish, whiny, and shallow personality put her at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the characters, all of whom have much more interesting stories to tell and more complex personalities. Her attitude of playing the victim has also contributed to making her one of the most hated main characters in history.

2 Rory Gilmore — Gilmore Girls

Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls
Warner Bros. Television

Gilmore Girls follows Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, a young mother and her teenage daughter as they try to get ahead in life and fulfill their dreams. In the beginning of this show, Rory is a smart and dedicated teenager, but as the seasons go by, she starts to grow into more of a controversial character for the fans. For one thing, she tends to take advantage of her mother and grandparents, who basically provide her with everything she wants and needs, and on many occasions she doesn't seem to realize how blessed she is to have a mother like Lorelai and the privileges granted to her. She is also irresponsible with other people's feelings, both with her friends and romantic partners, to whom she cheats consistently. In the series revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Alexis Bledel's character also failed to vindicate herself, and despite time passing, she displays the same immature attitudes as in the original series.

1 Ross Geller — Friends

Ross Unagi
Warner Bros. Television

Wrapping up the list is one of the most hated main characters in the history of television. Played by the hilarious David Schwimmer, Ross Geller is one of the main characters of Friends, one of the most popular shows of all time. Despite having a fan base around the world, Ross' attitudes throughout the show also made him one of the most criticized and loathed of this bunch of friends. The character is selfish, sexist, and constantly tries to play the victim, which he is not very good at. His love story with Rachel also helps to make fans loathe him, as they witness Ross'scontrolling and unbearable attitude towards her leading to the couple's downfall. Moreover, the fact that they end up together in the end is what was missing for Ross to become the audience's least beloved character.