Who's the worst actor on tv?

[Son of a Rich]

My nominee would have to be Thomas Gibson, formerly "Greg" on Dharma and Greg, currently on Criminal Minds. Is this guy capable of anything other than a beetle-browed scowl? It's like he's trying too hard to be a "serious" actor after being on a crappy sit-com. I don't know- maybe his whole face had been botoxed and that's the best he can do.

[Ogre]

Jeffrey Donovan, from "Burn Notice". Oy vey, is he ever terrible.

[twickster]

I'd say David Caruso, but CSI Miami has been cancelled.

**takes off sunglasses, squints**

"Cancelled."

**re-dons sunglasses**

[The Second Stone]

David Caruso. Didn't know it had been cancelled. He's so bad it is highly entertaining. Worse than Lee Majors. I've seen the Burn Notice and Criminal Minds guys, and they are better than Caruso.

[D_Odds]

Jerry O'Connell. I think he is between jobs right now, his series with that other great thespian Jim Belushi cancelled, but I'm always amazed by the facts that (a) he can keep getting jobs and (b) he bedded Rebecca Romjin. Life just ain't fair.

[Elendil's Heir]

Jim Belushi or George Lopez have to be on any short list.

[Munch]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

Jim Belushi or George Lopez have to be on any short list.

My Mount Rushmore of shitty TV actors is Belushi, Lopez, David Spade and the Olsen twins.

[Agent Foxtrot]

Gotta go with Burn Notice too. Whoever that guy is, he ain't no Don Johnson, as much as he tries to be.

[Sister Vigilante]

Originally Posted by Ogre

Jeffrey Donovan, from "Burn Notice". Oy vey, is he ever terrible.

Them's fighting words. I love when he gets to do other characters while he's undercover and I believe he does them well. His smiles do look kind of fake though.

I can't think of any myself, except to echo David Caruso.

[brickbacon]

Piper Perabo from Covert Affairs is pretty bad. Although now that I think about it, most USA shows have some pretty bad actors.

[terentii]

Originally Posted by Son of a Rich

It's like he's trying too hard to be a "serious" actor after being on a crappy sit-com.

Hey, his wife was whacked while he was talking to her over the phone, and then he killed the murderer with his bare hands. The guy can't really be all that well-adjusted any more!

[Sampiro]

Originally Posted by Ogre

Jeffrey Donovan, from "Burn Notice". Oy vey, is he ever terrible.

I'd go with him for Worst Male, Mad Men's January Jones for Worst Female.

[ftg]

George Segal was unbelievably bad on Just Shoot Me!. I see he's got a show called Retired at 35 on now, and I assume he hasn't gotten any better. (And he was Biff in Death of a Salesman and was in King Rat.)

Betty White is the worst actress hands down. Can barely get her lines out. Forget actual acting. At some point you have to retire.

[John DiFool]

What, no mention of Ray Romano yet?

[RickJay]

Originally Posted by John DiFool

What, no mention of Ray Romano yet?

His show's been over for years. In any event, when it was on, he was fifty times the actor George Lopez was. Lopez has been in a hundred TV series or movies and has never in his life put in ten consecutive seconds of believable acting. He's the worst actor I've ever seen with a long career.

But his show's gone too.

The thing is, though, that the worst actor on TV, or even the TEN worst actors, would all be on Nickleodeon shows. Tween shows like "The Suite Life on Deck," "Victorious" or "iCarly" have acting on them of staggering ineptitude, actors who make Jim Belushi look like a towering master of thespianism. The guy who plays the older brother on "iCarly," Spencer Shay, is an actor of no talent at all whose only ability is doing a goofy voice. He makes George Lopez look like Sir Laurence Olivier, I shit you not. He literally just looks like a high school improv nerd who somehow stumbled onto the set of a real TV show and the cast doesn't have the heart to tell him to fuck off.

I guess that's unfair to those shows, because they're budget productions for a less discriminating audience, but it's true. ALL the worst actors are on tween shows. Nobody on an adult show is even remotely close.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

Completely agree with RickJay. I am traumatized from the times I've been subject to tween shows. I had to have all my teeth replaced after grinding them to dust from not going into a tirade of how a black screen would be more entertaining.

Now I'm pissed off at you RickJay for bringing that trauma back to my mind and since I can't Pit you, I'm going to go kick some puppies.

[lisiate]

I think Ginnifer Goodwin and Jennifer Morrison (both in Once Upon a Time) give January Jones some competition for worst actresses on TV. One's wetter than a dishrag and the other seems perpetually constipated. The kid's even worse but you can't really judge kids by grown-up standards.

[kunilou]

I vote for the combo of Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence on ABC Family's Melissa and Joey. They may not be the absolute worst actors on TV but I'll wager they're (currently) the worst pair of actors to have a show named after them.

[Morbo]

Manny on Modern Family. Doing him no favors are the other kid actors on the show, who are all exceptional.

[Anamorphic]

Originally Posted by John DiFool

What, no mention of Ray Romano yet?

I never really watched much of his sitcom, but he was good in the prematurely cancelled "Men Of A Certain Age".

[salinqmind]

Ray Romano is as good as he needs to be, considering the roles he plays - I mean, just look at him! What do you want from the guy? (and anyway, he started out as a comedian, didn't he?)

[BrotherCadfael]

It's some years canceled, but I'll still nominate the kids who played the young twins on Seventh Heaven. Man, they were terrible!

[D-bear]

Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Brit Hume all manage to keep from laughing when they say "Fair and Balanced," but they are terrible actors.

[AClockworkMelon]

Originally Posted by Covered_In_Bees!

Completely agree with RickJay. I am traumatized from the times I've been subject to tween shows. I had to have all my teeth replaced after grinding them to dust from not going into a tirade of how a black screen would be more entertaining.

Now I'm pissed off at you RickJay for bringing that trauma back to my mind and since I can't Pit you, I'm going to go kick some puppies.

You can pit moderators same as other posters.

[Doody Pants*]

Jayma Mays in Glee. I think her eyes are going to literally fall out if she opens them any wider.

[D_Odds]

Originally Posted by Anamorphic

I never really watched much of his sitcom, but he was good in the prematurely cancelled "Men Of A Certain Age".

It was basically the exact same character.

[charmstr]

Matt Passmore on The Glades. Weirdly enough, as awful as his wooden smirkiness is, I still enjoy the show.

[C. Montgomery Burns]

Is Wanda Sykes still on any shows currently? If so, I'd say her. She doesn't do anything but yell stuff in "sassy" ebonics.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by RickJay

...The guy who plays the older brother on "iCarly," Spencer Shay, is an actor of no talent at all whose only ability is doing a goofy voice. He makes George Lopez look like Sir Laurence Olivier, I shit you not. He literally just looks like a high school improv nerd who somehow stumbled onto the set of a real TV show and the cast doesn't have the heart to tell him to fuck off....

I agree with your criticism of tween shows generally (The Suite Life first and foremost), but I actually like this guy. He has great comic timing and almost always makes me laugh. I would go so far as to say he's the best thing on the show, which my boys watch just about whenever it's on.

[Ogre]

Originally Posted by salinqmind

I mean, just look at him! What do you want from the guy?

Was i the only one who imagined Ray Romano saying this in that horrible, drawn-out Ray Romano whine?

[Sampiro]

Originally Posted by C. Montgomery Burns

Is Wanda Sykes still on any shows currently? If so, I'd say her. She doesn't do anything but yell stuff in "sassy" ebonics.

She doesn't do much more than this in her standup act these days.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

Oops

[ScarletNumber]

Originally Posted by Son of a Rich

My nominee would have to be Thomas Gibson, formerly "Greg" on Dharma and Greg, currently on Criminal Minds. Is this guy capable of anything other than a beetle-browed scowl? It's like he's trying too hard to be a "serious" actor after being on a crappy sit-com. I don't know- maybe his whole face had been botoxed and that's the best he can do.

I put him, Eric McCormack, and Charles Shaughnessy all in the same category.

[Ogre]

Originally Posted by Son of a Rich

My nominee would have to be Thomas Gibson, formerly "Greg" on Dharma and Greg, currently on Criminal Minds. Is this guy capable of anything other than a beetle-browed scowl? It's like he's trying too hard to be a "serious" actor after being on a crappy sit-com. I don't know- maybe his whole face had been botoxed and that's the best he can do.

Let's put it this way: I think he played a one-note, stick-in-the-mud tightass on Dharma and Greg for a very good reason.

[Sampiro]

I have a personal beef with Thomas Gibson: During his broke and hungry days he did an internship with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. While he was on Dharma and Greg he mentioned this during a Jay Leno appearance, at which Leno immediately went off on a "tuh bay er not tuh bay, that thar's the question" southern accent joke and then asked something like "Alabama Shakespeare Festival, was it in the back of a truckstop?", to which Gibson laughed and said "You're not too far off".

For those not familiar, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival is one of the best and most famous repertory companies in the United States. It was endowed by a billionaire who basically said "spare no expense" in building it, it's internationally famous, QE2 recognized it by sending an item from the Crown Jewels (admittedly a cheap item I'm sure, but still- only done for very worthy Shakespearean theaters- I think 2 or 3 others in North America have that distinction). Pictures.

Its members have gone on to Broadway and movies. (Norbert Leo Butz is one of the most famous alumni and he has publicly praised it.) Say what you will about Alabama, the Shakespeare Festival kicks ass. Pissed me the hell off that he didn't stand up for them or give just a two second "no, actually, it's really nice" defense.

[Nzinga, Seated]

Ice T.

As for iCarly, that is an awesome show and the actors aren't grand thespians, but they are better than any other tween shows by a mile. Even the older brother.

[Mixolydian]

I haven't watched enough bad TV recently to judge, but I do overhear my daughter's viewings of the Disney & Nickelodeon tween shows. I will agree with RickJay regarding the vacuum of talent therein.

Nevertheless, the one show I'll admit I watched for way too many episodes that has worse talent is ABC's "Revenge", with Henry Czerny, who plays the "evil" Conrad Grayson, as the pinnacle of "baaaaaaad"....to quote Leonard Pinth-Garnell.

[drastic_quench]

Michael Rapaport.

I win. You can just watch the first 10 seconds in which his direction is to enter and remark on the pleasant smell in the kitchen. What a natural. Or you can watch him in literally anything else. He's the only bad thing in True Romance 'fer instance.

[Marley23]

Originally Posted by D-bear

Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Brit Hume all manage to keep from laughing when they say "Fair and Balanced," but they are terrible actors.

Let's keep politics out of this, please.

[gallows fodder]

Originally Posted by ScarletNumber

I put him, Eric McCormack, and Charles Shaughnessy all in the same category.

I've never watched Will and Grace, so I can't speak to his performance in that, but Eric McCormack was in a show called Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years in the mid-'90s, playing a Civil War veteran and local tyrant, and I thought he was great in it. Fairly nuanced portrayal of someone alternately charming and menacing.

Thomas Gibson and Charles Shaughnessy I'll grant you, though. (Even my lingering love of Shaughnessy from his days on Days of Our Lives can't cloud my eyes to the fact that he's a very one-note performer.)

[Loach]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

I have a personal beef with Thomas Gibson: During his broke and hungry days he did an internship with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. While he was on Dharma and Greg he mentioned this during a Jay Leno appearance, at which Leno immediately went off on a "tuh bay er not tuh bay, that thar's the question" southern accent joke and then asked something like "Alabama Shakespeare Festival, was it in the back of a truckstop?", to which Gibson laughed and said "You're not too far off".

For those not familiar, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival is one of the best and most famous repertory companies in the United States. It was endowed by a billionaire who basically said "spare no expense" in building it, it's internationally famous, QE2 recognized it by sending an item from the Crown Jewels (admittedly a cheap item I'm sure, but still- only done for very worthy Shakespearean theaters- I think 2 or 3 others in North America have that distinction). Pictures.

Its members have gone on to Broadway and movies. (Norbert Leo Butz is one of the most famous alumni and he has publicly praised it.) Say what you will about Alabama, the Shakespeare Festival kicks ass. Pissed me the hell off that he didn't stand up for them or give just a two second "no, actually, it's really nice" defense.

Sounds like he was playing along with a little joke. Not something to put him on your mortal enemies list for.

[Alessan]

Originally Posted by Sister Vigilante

Them's fighting words. I love when he gets to do other characters while he's undercover and I believe he does them well. His smiles do look kind of fake though.

I agree with you - and furthermore, I think that his smiles are supposed to look fake. His character never actually wants to smile.

[Zyanthia]

I have to vote for Joanne Kelly from warehouse 13. She was so bad, I almost stopped watching (and I had to use Google to find her name, because I just couldn't be bothered). However, I thought the potential for greatness was there and stuck with it.

It was the first time I've ever had such a negative reaction to an actor/actress that I seriously considered quitting watching.

[Loach]

Kat Dennings. I know the writing is awful on 2 Broke Girls but she manages to make it even worse. But her boobs deserve to win an emmy. Or two.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Loach

Kat Dennings. I know the writing is awful on 2 Broke Girls but she manages to make it even worse. But her boobs deserve to win an emmy. Or two.

They are spectacular.

[FairyChatMom]

I don't know the names of the actors and I've never seen more than the last few minutes of the shows or the commercials, but there are a few on those TBS Tyler Perry series that are gawd-awful! Especially the rotund man who wears mis-matched clothes - he could open his own school of Bad Acting and Emoting and Annoying Voices. Of course, since I've never seen these shows, I could be missing the point - for all I know, they're profound commentaries on life framed in bad slapstick...

[RickJay]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

I agree with your criticism of tween shows generally (The Suite Life first and foremost), but I actually like this guy. He has great comic timing and almost always makes me laugh. I would go so far as to say he's the best thing on the show, which my boys watch just about whenever it's on.

You are incorrect. I am sorry, but you are simply wrong, and you must now change the error of your ways.

However, I was wrong too. I said the actor's name was Spencer Shay. That is the CHARACTER'S name; the actor is Jerry Trainor.

Originally Posted by Loach

Kat Dennings.

The problem with nominating Kat Dennings is that she has put in perfectly serviceable work in movies and such. So it has to be the writing, really, or that she's miscast.

If you went by her performance in "The Phantom Menace," you would have to conclude that Natalie Portman was the worst actress to ever step before a camera; her work in that movie is hilariously incompetent. But in fact she has turned in excellent work in many other films, so nobody really thought she was a bad actress; they just assumed, correctly, that it was the writing and/or direction. I'm not suggesting Kat Dennings is Natalie Portman, but she's put in good work elsewhere, so you can't blame her entirely for the shit on "Two Broke Girls."

But to pull back out the example of George Lopez, Lopez is always bad. In every show, every movie, he's terrible. My kid watched "Shark Boy and Lavagirl" the other day and the movie isn't very good to say the least, but Lopez was ten times worse than anything else in it. He played two roles, one of which was stupid easy and anyone who's ever taken high school drama should have done a competent job, and he was terrible in both. You can't blame his bad acting on context, because it's always bad.

[Gyrate]

I'd love to mention most of the cast of the CSI shows (cancelled or no), especially New York and Miami, but they're usually master thespians compared to the Pretty People who are guest starring in any given week. Holy crap, some of those people are appallingly bad actors and actresses; they're basically just business cards for their plastic surgeons (with all the personality and talent of a small square of card). Fortunately we never see them again because the characters are mostly dead or in jail, so that's a silver lining.

[Loach]

Originally Posted by RickJay

You are incorrect. I am sorry, but you are simply wrong, and you must now change the error of your ways.

However, I was wrong too. I said the actor's name was Spencer Shay. That is the CHARACTER'S name; the actor is Jerry Trainor.


The problem with nominating Kat Dennings is that she has put in perfectly serviceable work in movies and such. So it has to be the writing, really, or that she's miscast.

I would say TV acting and especially sitcom acting are much different skills than movie acting. I only remember seeing her in Thor and her "leaked" nude cell phone photos. Neither role was very demanding. The unrealistic manner she delivers her lines on the show really annoys me. Even if there were any good lines I couldn't watch. I swear she isnt looking at her costars and is reading off cards. Her costar doesn't have any better lines but she seems at least competent.

I won't argue with you about George Lopez. But I think it takes a special actor to rise above a Rogert Rodriguez kids movie. The only one I have seen accomplish it is Jeremy Piven.

[Soylent Juicy]

I channel-surfed onto Hanna Montana a couple times and hereby nominate Miley Cyrus. She made my brain hurt.

Any given character on CSI - I mean the guest characters, not the main cast. But post-Grissom I nominate the entire cast. Finlay drives me nuts with that constant smirk.