The dirty dozen Michael: Love Island Spencer: Made in Chelsea David Van Day: IAC

Reality TV’s most despicable baddies

Nasty Nick: Big Brother 1

Would Big Brother have been a hit without him? Probably. But Nick Bateman ensured it was unmissable TV in 2000 when he schemed behind housemates’ backs while being nice to their faces, lied about a dead fiance and wrote down names of people he wanted others to vote for ON CONTRABAND PAPER WITH A CONTRABAND PEN!!! When he was rumbled, Craig Phillips led the confrontation and went on to win. Nick moved to Australia so folk would stop calling him Nasty Nick,

The key to making it through Love Island unhated is accepting when you’ve done wrong and apologising. Michael Griffiths was coupled up with eventual winner Amber Gill in 2019, but decided to leave her for Casa Amor hottie Joanna Chimonides.

Amber was devastated, but instead of saying sorry, he called her pathetic and said their relationship hadn’t been any good anyway.

The irony of a firefighter doing this kind of gaslighting was lost on no one.

Nowadays he’s a happily married man but, back in the day, Spencer “Spenny” Matthews was a cad who broke the hearts of many a posh princess and showed little to no remorse. There were other accusations – obviously – but he was proven to have been unfaithful to four women on the show – Louise Thompson, Lauren Hutton (not that one), Lucy Watson and Stephanie Pratt. Lowest low: saying to a devastated Louise: “It’s f***ing hard to respect you when you allow me to cheat on you.” Yup, all her fault.

Two weeks into the show and the former Dollar singer had turned every single other celebrity against him. He was rude, manipulative, egocentric, lazy and selfish. He made Sonia cry. And he horrified Nicola McLean by flirting. (‘He’s old enough to be my father! And his hair is so bleached it’s GREEN!”) Even sweet Joe Swash, his last ally in the 2008 camp, couldn’t defend him any more by the end, and you know the old saying – when you’ve lost Swash, you’ve lost everyone.

Christine: Selling Sunset

Real-estate agent Christine Quinn was so mean to cast members that she was the star of every scene – even those she didn’t appear in – because all anyone could talk about was how horrible she was. Her main defence, “I never start the drama, I just finish it,” isn’t that much of a defence. She quit at the end of season five in 2022 when she was accused of bribing a client to stop working with a castmate, which she denies.

Wilfred: The Traitors

In his defence, as it was the first series, he had never seen an episode of The Traitors before so probably was not sure how dastardly to be.

In his non-defence, Wilfred Webster was pretty dastardly.

He turned on fellow Traitor Amanda and ensured she was done for.

Then he looked Hannah straight in the eyes – a girl he had become good friends with, and who was crying – and swore he was a Faithful in a bid to steal all the money.

He didn’t manage to though. Ha.

Paul: The Traitors

Started as he meant to go on, Paul Gorton almost immediately described himself as cruel, with a massive, proud grin on his face.

No other Traitor in the UK or any other country’s version has turned on a fellow Traitor as quickly as he led the charge against Ash this year.

Now, despite the fact he’s meant to be getting rid of Faithfuls, it appears he may be Ash setting things up to take his co-conspirator Harry down too. It’s currently unclear if this is to try and avoid detection himself, or just because he can. Mwah ha ha…

Kim: Celeb Big Brother

Not saying she took the game too seriously – but Kim Woodburn did have to be removed from the house by Big Brother security guards in 2017 for her own safety.

After falling out with Nicola McClean and Bianca Gascoigne, she told them: “I will cross you so badly you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

When Jamie O’Hara tried to stick up for them she ranted: “You’re a disgrace, you are nasty, vile. These people, they put me through hell.” Not sure that’s quite how they saw it.

Scott: The Kardashians

How do we hate Scott Disick? Let us count the ways. He fat-shamed his post-natal girlfriend Kourtney in 2013, saying: “Last time around you tried to watch what you were eating, after you had Mason… at least you were losing weight. Just do it faster.”

He drunkenly smashed up hotel rooms, once while his infant son slept in the next room. He shoved dollar bills in a waiter’s mouth when he dared expect a tip. Weirdly, he and Kourtney are no longer together. The one that got away, eh, Kourt?

Diane: Bake-Off

Iain Watters’ baked Alaska was taken out of the freezer by fellow contestant Diana Beard and left to melt on the side, in an incident in 2014 dubbed “Bingate”, because he threw it in the bin in a tantrum. He then brought the bin to the judges, saying they could still taste the flavours, but funnily enough they weren’t keen and he left the competition. Diana was accused of “sabotaging” Iain’s chances. The BBC cleared her, Iain said he didn’t blame her and Diana said her “conscience was clear”, but the viewers were not so sure.

Craig: Strictly

Craig Revel Horwood is the judge it’s impossible to please — which means he’s the only judge anyone ever cares about pleasing.

A good comment from him means more than entirely glowing praise from the rest of the Strictly Come Dancing panel combined.

And the twinkle in Craig’s eye means he somehow gets away with things like telling a young man dedicating a dance to the mother he heartbreakingly lost to cancer age five – which has all the other judges in tears – that his hands were a mess.

Mark: Only Way Is Essex

Low-rent lothario Mark Wright had his pick of Essex girls, despite cheating on them and making comments about their appearance. When long-suffering girlfriend of nine years Lauren Goodger was shown in her underwear getting a spray tan, he told her she “looked about 20 stone”. He played girls off against each other and broke Lauren’s heart in 2011 by running off in a taxi with Sam Faiers and – in a new low for human beings, taxis and eyes – winking cheesily at the camera in the process.