Characters come and go from TV shows due to their long-running nature. Very rarely will you have the same cast members at the start that you'll have at the end. Actors may want to go onto other projects, writers may want to write certain characters out/kill them off, or some cast members may even pass away unexpectedly in real life and not be recast for any number of possible reasons.

While it's often sad to see a beloved character leave a show (or even a character viewers may love to hate), occasionally, there are characters you may want to see gone from the show. Rarely is this the actor's fault, it should be noted - more often than not, it's down to the writing. A certain character might not fit in with the rest of the cast, be significantly less funny than other characters (in a sitcom), or otherwise be a little too annoying. As harsh as it may be to say for some (but not all) of the characters listed here, the following nine may have benefited the shows they belonged to had they exited a little earlier.

Updated on October 6, 2023, by Jeremy Urquhart:

Not all TV characters are created equal, and not all are fun to watch/spend time with for multiple seasons. Some serve their purpose within a season or two, and are then made to exit, while other characters earn the right to be in a show for numerous seasons. Unfortunately, there are occasions where the former kind of character slips into the latter category, making for characters who outstay their welcome in certain TV shows, likely to the viewer's dismay.

11 Andy Bernard from 'The Office' (2005-2013)

Andy was always going to be a polarizing character. His explosive outbursts and anger issues were played for laughs and used as character development throughout the show. For a while at least, he did settle into the main cast decently well, arriving in the show during its third season.

The problems with Andy become more apparent as The Office approaches its final seasons. Replacing Michael Scott would always be difficult, but Andy probably wasn't the best character to rely on to fill the gap left behind by the main character's departure. Michael would never have left early in an ideal world, and maybe Andy would've. Instead, in our imperfect world, we got the opposite.

Watch on Peacock

10 Chuck McGill from 'Better Call Saul' (2015 - 2022)

Better Call Saul is a spin-off prequel to the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad. Though its popularity may not have equaled its parent show, it came very close. Viewers particularly loved its later seasons, and its final two especially got the kind of praise Breaking Bad had at its peak. It's probably a coincidence, but funnily enough, the brother of the lead character - and one of the show's main antagonists - Chuck McGill, was only a main character for the first three seasons, not the more beloved final three seasons.

Michael McKean deserves credit for how despicable and petty he makes the character, but maybe the writing and acting go too far, as he's truly infuriating to watch. Still, some viewers found him a great foil to Jimmy (AKA Saul Goodman), but to others, he may have made the earlier seasons of the show even more challenging to get through.

Watch on Netflix

9 Tom Haverford from 'Parks and Recreation' (2009 - 2015)

Parks and Recreation notably got rid of Mark Brendanawicz at the end of its second season, ushering in two new characters - Ben and Chris - to more or less take his place. Mark wasn't a terrible Parks and Rec character, and while his role as the straight man/"normal" guy in the first two seasons proved useful, as the show became sillier and goofier, it seemed the writers ran out of things to do with him.

Two other main characters depart the show well before its series finale, so having cast members leave was never out of the question for the show. So that makes it unusual why Aziz Ansari's Tom Haverford stuck around until the end. His big personality and energy may be entertaining for a while. Still, it becomes tiring by Season 3 or 4, and through no fault of Ansari, the writers' attempts to find things for Tom to do become increasingly strained and unfunny. Parks and Recreation is worse off for having had Tom stick around beyond the halfway point of the show, in all honesty.

Watch on Peacock

8 Kim Bauer from '24' (2001-2014)

24 is a TV show that dealt with some sensitive topics in a way that made it controversial, given it tackled terrorism, political corruption, and torture, among other things. Yet in a less intense way, the cast of characters throughout the show's eight (or nine, depending on how you classify Live Another Day) seasons wasn't universally beloved, with few characters being quite as contested as protagonist Jack Bauer's daughter, Kim.

She goes through a great deal of turmoil in the first season, and then somehow went through even more (a preposterous amount) in the second season. The third season saw her suddenly employed at CTU, where her father worked, which also felt a little silly. Behind season 1, her involvement in the show could feel a bit forced, with the decision to make her a recurring character/guest star after season 3 ultimately being a wise one.

Watch on Hulu

7 Gemma Morrow from 'Sons of Anarchy' (2008 - 2014)

The malicious and often despicable Gemma Morrow was always going to be a mainstay of Sons of Anarchy. The show was created by Kurt Sutter, married to Katey Sagal, who plays Gemma. It would have been pretty awkward for her to be prematurely written out of the show. Still, she sticks around for way too long and became a character fans expected would die on the show, making it to the show's penultimate episode before being killed.

Even on a show with plenty of terrible characters, her actions stick out as being particularly terrible, in an almost cartoonish way. Her murder of her daughter-in-law is truly grotesque and unbelievable, even within Sons of Anarchy's heightened, extra-violent world. While the show overall was so flawed that removing this one character early might not have improved it immensely, it probably wouldn't have hurt.

Watch on Hulu

6 María LaGuerta from 'Dexter' (2006-2013)

There's a case to be made that everyone on Dexter overstayed their welcome, seeing as the show as a whole did. Its first four seasons were largely well-liked, with the quality getting a bit spottier from season 5 onwards (though season 7 is notably better than the controversial sixth and eighth seasons). But of the main characters, María LaGuerta was the one who felt like she stuck around a bit longer than needed.

As something of an obstacle to the titular character and his serial killing, LaGuerta wasn't particularly effective in that role for much of her time on the show. It also doesn't help that the more charismatic James Doakes, who served a similar role in the show, was arguably written out of Dexter too hastily, with it being interesting to wonder how the show would've turned out if their roles/overall screen time had been swapped.

Watch on Showtime

5 Riley Finn from 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (1997-2003)

Of Buffy's main love interests throughout Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Riley may have been the "best" option for her as a character, but he was certainly the least interesting for viewers. Sandwiched between two tortured, undead lovers, Riley seemed vanilla and less charismatic, even if that was intentional.

Still, the writers seemed to realize he couldn't be interested in the long-term, unlike most of the show's other great minor characters. The attempts to spice up his character in his second season felt awkward, and eventually, he was written out. While he only lasted about a season and a half, Riley's blandness ensured that that still felt too long.

Watch on Hulu

4 Foggy Nelson from 'Daredevil' (2015 - 2018)

Sorry, but Foggy in Daredevil is just kind of annoying. Foggy is not disliked by all viewers, sure, and while protagonist Matt Murdock does need at least one person he can rely on as a friend and talk to, outside his vigilante duties, he (and the viewers) deserve better.

If he's there for comic relief, the stuff he gets up to is never that amusing, and even the friendship between him and Matt doesn't feel super believable. There are plenty of people who aren't bothered by Foggy, but at the same time, he's probably not going to be anyone's favorite Daredevil character. If Matt's the only person who really likes him, he'd be a great character to kill off.

Watch on Disney+

3 Ramsay Bolton and Euron Greyjoy from 'Game of Thrones' (2011 - 2019)

These two antagonists from Game of Thrones can be joined together quite easily. In the wake of Joffrey's death in the show's fourth season (a villain who was a true love-to-hate kind of character), there was naturally a need to have him replaced, and Ramsay and Euron were both intended to do just that.

But unfortunately, in the writers trying to make two characters just as evil - or more evil - than Joffrey, they pushed things too far. They're not characters you love to hate; they're hate-to-hate characters. Their villainy often goes too far and seems goofy compared to Joffrey, whose despicable, twisted actions often felt more grounded or believable. There are many reasons why GoT ended with a whimper compared to how it started; the characters of Ramsay and Euron can be counted among them.

Watch on Max

2 The Major from 'Manifest' (2018 - )

Manifest has given fans more than a few heartbreaking moments thanks to character deaths. With the second half of its final season premiering last June, viewers saw the end of the series that follows a group of passengers from a plane that mysteriously disappears for five years and leaves the survivors with enigmatic and often dangerous visions called "Callings."

One character who never made it past the second season is The Major (later revealed to be Kathryn Fitz), but she stuck around way too long and should have exited before the 20th episode. There was so much build-up and secrecy around The Major's identity and motives for abducting passengers and the payoff was unfortunately underwhelming. She's not the evil mastermind with all the answers that the passengers were hoping for, but just another government pawn with minimal impact on future seasons (aside from Saanvi's storyline).

Watch on Netflix

1 Connor from 'Angel' (1999 - 2004)

Connor is probably the least-liked main character to appear in either Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel. His inclusion as Angel's son (who grows up extra fast because he spends his childhood in an alternate dimension where time moves differently) is at first intriguing, meaning that the idea of the character itself could have worked well.

But ultimately, whatever decent potential the character had is squandered by the show's uneven fourth season. Teenagers can be bratty and self-entitled, sure, but not to the extent Connor is, and while he might have reasons to act the way he does, his annoying qualities probably went a bit too far. He's one reason the fourth season of Angel is quite skippable, though his return in a smaller role in Season 5 works reasonably well.

Watch on Hulu

NEXT: 'Angel' Characters, Ranked by Likeability