Top 10 Meanest TV Personalities
They're some mean ones. And they're filthy rich. Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we count down our picks for the Top 10 Meanest TV Personalities. For this list, we'll be looking at the small screen meanies known for being loudmouths, smart mouths, and potty mouths.
Special thanks to our user MikeyP for submitting the idea on our Interactive Suggestion Tool at http://www.WatchMojo.comsuggest
#10: Natalia Kills & Willy Moon
“The X Factor New Zealand” (2013-)
The Shocking True Story of Natalia Grace
How vicious are these two? Simon Cowell thought they were mean. Simon! Cowell! A husband and wife team - and then recently installed judges on New Zealand’s version of “X Factor”- the two gained notoriety when they tag-teamed hapless contestant Joe Irvine. Irvine’s crime you ask? Copping Willy Moon’s signature style of ...wearing a suit and ...having hair. Natalia Kills took the brunt of the public hate in 2015 with 70,000 fans calling for her firing in just 24 hours - but it was Moon who made arguably the most offensive comments, suggesting Irvine looked like he’d joy-kill the studio audience, slasher-style. Sure enough, the couple was sacked from the series shortly thereafter.
#9: Morton Downey, Jr.
“The Morton Downey, Jr. Show” (1987-89); “Downey” (1994-95)
Like angry, chain-smoking, opinionated, old white guys, but don’t follow politics? Morton Downey, Jr. to the rescue! Known for good reason as “Mort the Mouth”, Downey popularized the phrase “Zip it!”, verbally attacked strippers, physically attacked gays, and even brought out his HIV positive brother - just to upset his audience. Downey’s rise as king of trash TV was meteoric, but short lived. In high times, he appeared at Wrestlemania V, and in “Predator 2”, but by the time his late ‘80s series ended, sponsors were reduced to 1-900 numbers while his show was bumped later and later into the night.
#8: Patti Stanger
“The Millionaire Matchmaker” (2008-15)
Dubbed “The Simon Cowell of Dating”, the surgically enhanced and largely airbrushed Patti Stanger has made a name for herself by telling it how no one wants to hear it. As a matchmaker and CEO of the “Millionaire’s Club,” she sifts through potential dates with her own shallow standards - never hesitating to inform someone if they’re too old, too fat, or too redheaded. Patti has even used the series herself, but when the resulting coupling smashed on the rocks, she lowered herself to pleb-standards and found her next man - David Krause - on Plenty of Fish. That pairing ended in 2015, as did her relationship with Bravo.
#7: Abby Lee Miller
“Dance Moms” (2011-)
She describes herself as “batshit crazy,” and that’s a good indication of what to expect from this dance instructor. Harshly critical - even at a personal level - in an effort to motivate her dancers, Abby Lee Miller’s temper and crazed-out drama made her the breakout star of this reality show. Anger highlights include a 2013 chair throwing at dancer Paige Hyland that amounted to a lawsuit by Hyland the following year. Miller frequently complains about the show’s editing. However, many dancers claim she’s even worse in real life so maybe she should just leave well enough alone...
#6: Joe Bastianich
“MasterChef” (2010-); “Restaurant Startup” (2014-)
Known to at least some “MasterChef” fans as “Bastardbitch,” this Queens-based restaurateur left the Gordon Ramsay-led series in 2014 to focus on other projects - which probably include being a meany-meany-bo-beany. On the bravado scale, Joe Bastianich claims to have invented the everything bagel. On the being a jerk scale, the restaurateur once suggested a well-liked but blind chef would be better suited to working in the coatroom. Said by the kids of “MasterChef Jr” to be even scarier than Ramsay, this is one dude you wouldn’t want to bump into in a dark kitchen.
#5: Judy Sheindlin
“Judge Judy” (1996-)
Top 10 Times Judge Judy Was Wrong
Aw, dear, grandmotherly Judge Judy; dispensing wisdom, logic, and solid reason for decades. And making $47m a year doing it! Although she has legit legal cred, the court over which Judge Judy presides is not real – cases are arbitrated, participants are paid to appear and the show itself shells out damages- meaning everybody wins... usually. In an effort to make “good TV”, Judy and her show once outed a gay man against his wishes, despite it having nothing to do with his destroyed flagpole. It also wrongly implied he had been evicted, resulting in him facing harassment.
#4: Bill O’Reilly
“The O’Reilly Factor” (1996-)
Top 10 Times Bill Hader Broke The SNL Cast
Best known as the argumentative, hot-headed, loudmouthed, pot-stirring host of “The O’Reilly Factor,” Billy-boy shoots from the hip. A raging jerk-nugget on-screen, the one thing we can say about Bill O’Reilly is his shtick doesn’t seem to be an act. In 2004, a female producer of his show threatened to sue O’Reilly when he drunkenly called the woman and described his various masturbatory fantasies involving her - the host counter-sued for extortion. During his eventual divorce, O’Reilly attempted to have his ex-wife excommunicated from the Catholic Church, resulting in her being formally reprimanded for taking communion as a divorcee. Bitter much?
#3: Simon Cowell
Various (2001-)
Simon Cowell VERSUS Gordon Ramsay
In another, better, brighter world, we could admire Simon Cowell. This is not that world. Working his way up from the mailroom at EMI records to A&R scout and eventual music mogul, Cowell first gained major attention as a judge on “American Idol”. Cutting remark after cutting remark saw him dubbed Judge Dread, while Cowell has become the template for mean-ass talent judges. Although he does have his odd kind moment - the career of Susan Boyle for example - Cowell will always be known as Mr. Nasty ... and the man behind bands like 1D, and ... 5ive.
#2: Gordon Ramsay
Various (2004-)
Another Top 10 Gordon Ramsay Outbursts
Just how mean is Gordon Ramsay? He’s actually had cosmetic surgery to appear less threatening on TV. Yikes. Off-screen, Ramsay has faced accusations of serving frozen meals at some of his restaurants, and in 2005, he lied about and gleefully fed a vegetarian a ham pizza… but he’s somehow worse on camera. In 2004, during a taping of “Hell’s Kitchen,” he shoved a contestant, causing the man to sprain his ankle - while in 2007, on the same series, he verbally fat-shamed an overweight chef. However, for British fans, the testament to Ramsay’s nastiness is his epic showdown with former MP Edwina Currie.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- Red Symons
“Hey Hey It’s Saturday” (1971-99; 2009-10)
- Nancy Grace
“Nancy Grace” (2005-)
- Keith Olbermann
“Countdown with Keith Olbermann” (2003-11; 2011-12)
- Anne Robinson
“Watchdog” (1985-); “The Weakest Link” (2000-12)
#1: Ann Coulter
Various (1996-)
Where others operate under a policy of brutal honestly, Ann Coulter seems to work without a map altogether. As a “Christian,” Coulter suggested Jews should convert and that Muslims should travel by camel rather than by a plane. Elsewhere, Coulter is semi-opposed to female voting and is against gay marriage, citing no Constitutional right to sodomy. Her use of “retard” and “faggot” as insults, meanwhile, has drawn the ire of the Special Olympics and GLAAD respectively, while even Bill O’Reilly called shenanigans when she found a bright side to the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011. She’s just not a nice person. But she does not care.
Do you agree with our list? Who do you think is the meanest TV personality? For more acid-spewing Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
