New Soap Opera Characters Who Failed To Impress Fans

Dorathy Gass

July 10, 2018

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New characters are introduced into soap operas all the time. Sometimes they can shake up storylines, add a fresh new personality into the mix, and at times, stun audiences. Then there are other instances where new characters flop, leaving audiences annoyed and frustrated. Below are soap opera characters who tried to make a big splash, but failed to impress fans.

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**12. Days’ Stefan O. DiMera**

Soap opera veteran Christopher Tyler has a slew of General Hospital (GH) fans who missed him on the soap when he made an explosive debut on Days of Our Lives (DOOL) as the illegitimate son of iconic baddie Stefano DiMera. The extremely talented Tyler did a pretty decent job as Salem’s new public enemy number one. Having said that, DOOL fans were less than impressed with how he assaulted Abigail DiMera, and the goodwill for his character floundered. Nowadays, Stefan is presumed to be deceased.

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**11. Days’ Leo Stark**

Greg Rikaart recently debuted on DOOL, playing the manipulative Leo Stark. With only some weeks under his belt, fans have been less enthused about the new character and his agenda. This may have more to do with Leo’s current storyline of manipulating fan favorite Sonny Kiriakis and potentially becoming his new love, then the actor or character itself. DOOL audiences feel that Sonny has been through enough, and many just want to see him settled with someone who won’t rip his heart in two.

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10. GH’s Peter August

Or should we say, Heinrich Faison? This GH character initially had an interesting storyline happening, in which he had some mommy issues and seemed to be sorting out his feelings for Maxie Jones. But his character became grating and Wes Ramsey’s performance style didn’t exactly endear anyone. After many false starts, a storyline finally committed to axing August in early 2022 when Anna took his pulse and sighed. However, it wouldn’t be the first time someone misread August’s pulse!

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9. GH’s Margaux Dawson

Much like her former Young and the Restless (Y&R) co-star Greg Rikaart (see above), Elizabeth Hendrickson once made the jump from Genoa City to another soap. However, daytime drama fans can sometimes be fickle when it comes to warming up to new characters, and new district attorney Margaux Dawson received some mixed reviews. It was a brief detour but nowadays, she’s back on Y&R as Chloe.

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**8. Y&R’s Tessa Porter**

Tessa returned to Y&R storylines when she had a confrontation with Kyle Abbott. While she did make quite a splash when she debuted on the soap, her character and storyline fizzled within months. Some fans welcomed Tessa’s onscreen return after a brief hiatus; others were annoyed and a bit disappointed that she was back in storylines and potentially being hooked up with Kyle. Needless to say, Tessa is now part of the “Teriah” super couple with Mariah. Even so, she hasn’t had an interesting storyline in a long time.

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7. GH’s Amy Driscoll

She was a newer character to the GH cast, considering the show is stacked with veterans. The entire idea around Amy’s character was to honor another nurse that was once at the center of everything and knew all the best hospital gossip, the late Amy Vining. Unfortunately, some fans didn’t see the comparison between these two GH Amys and found Driscoll to be quite annoying. After a test run, Amy was dropped from the show.

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**6. Y&R’s Jordan Wilde**

He was good-looking, had a cool job as a photographer, some shady history, and tried to make his rounds through Genoa City, but failed to truly impress Hilary Curtis or Lily Ashby. He also failed to impress fans. Jordan seemed to have all the ‘it’ qualities when it came to staying power on the show, but the character fizzled fast in the romance and storylines department.

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**5. Y&R’s Travis Crawford**

Speaking of handsome new characters in Y&R who fizzled, Travis Crawford came into the show with a bang by wooing Victoria Newman in April 2016. Unfortunately, the two simply did not have the chemistry that she and Billy Abbott had, and Travis ended up turning into a deadbeat boyfriend, leaving the show months later. Whether or not he had more chemistry with Vicky than Ashland, however, is another matter!

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**4. Y&R’s Juliet Helton**

Juliet certainly turned the land of Genoa City upside down when she was hired as an executive for Brass and Sassy. She ended up helping Cane score a huge account for the company. Then the two got drunk and had a one-night stand. She called the encounter sexual harassment and turned out to be expecting with Cane’s child. She almost broke up a marriage and ruined a corporation, all in one sweep. That’s quite a year, to say the least. Sadly, months later, Juliet passed away while giving birth to her baby. What was with the sudden exit? While Helton did make a splash, the character was very emotionless, considering the storyline she was in.

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3. GH’s Dr. David Bensch

Played by the extremely talented James DePaiva, GH fans were very unimpressed with Dr. Bensch’s slimy and creepy attitude. In fact, many viewers loved the actor and think he did an incredible job, considering what he had to work with. While the beauty of this storyline was that it brings the issue of workplace sexual harassment to the forefront, it’s undeniable that GH audiences couldn’t wait for Bensch to be found out and gone (no offense to James, though).

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**2. DOOL’s Mateo**

While fans appreciated that sexy accent, many couldn’t wait for Mateo to be a thing of the past. He was one of those characters who made audiences cringe when he was onscreen, and every bit of his dialogue had DOOL viewers screaming at their televisions. No one was impressed by this character.

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1. GH’s Nelle Benson

Nelle arrived on the GH scene in the summer of 2016. Her storyline was intriguing at first; however, after her revenge scam and true identity was exposed, it was all downhill for her. Nelle’s constant need to get back at Carly, manipulate Michael, and her attempt at “expecting” did not impressed GH fans in the least. Nelle eventually landed a one-way ticket out of Port Charles.

Dorathy Gass

Dorathy Gass is an avid fan of daytime drama and has been watching Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, and Young and the Restless for over two decades now. As a full-time freelance writer, she gets to combine her love of soap operas and writing through her Fame 10 articles. Also a mother of two busy girls and a mommy blogger, she's been published multiple times over in Huffington Post Parents and Scary Mommy.