Big Bad/Live-Action TV

"The ultimate villain of the story, who's causing the problem the heroes must solve."

Note that Big Bad is not a catch-all trope for the biggest and ugliest villain of any given story. The Big Bad is the one who turns out to be behind several other seemingly independent threats.

and City College, Greendale's rival.
 * 24:
 * Season 1:
 * Season 2:
 * The Game:
 * Season 3:
 * Season 4:
 * Season 5:
 * Season 6:
 * Season 7:
 * Season 8:
 * The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.: The main Big Bad is John Bly, who is eventually revealed to be an even bigger threat than previously thought when it is discovered that
 * Alphas: The main villains are the Red Flag organization, the collective Evil Counterpart to Rosen's Alpha team. Specifically, the Big Bad would be Red Flag's leader, Stanton Parish, who so far has only been on screen for about five minutes total in the first season finale, but has still managed to show himself as a master Chessmaster, and a very dangerous opponent.
 * Angel has Wolfram and Hart as the main antagonist for the entire series, though they were not always the Big Bad.
 * Season One has Wolfram and Hart.
 * Season Two begins with Wolfram and Hart, though they are upstaged by Darla and Drusilla halfway through the season.
 * Seasons Three and Four both have Well Intentioned Extremists as Big Bads -- Holtz and Jasmine, respectively.
 * Season Five has the Senior Partners, operating on Earth through their Dragons, the Circle of the Black Thorn.
 * Also big bads of the entire series, since Wolfram and Hart is the show's main villain and the Senior Partners are behind Wolfram and Hart.
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the Trope Namer, and would occasionally introduce "decoy" Big Bads to set up a surprising revelation:
 * The Movie: Count Lothos
 * Season 1: The Master
 * Season 2: First the Anointed One was a decoy big bad. Spike and Drusilla are the Big Bads of the first half of the season, and Angelus is the big bad of the second half after his Face Heel Turn.
 * Season 3: The Mayor
 * Subverted twice with Mr. Trick, initially played off as the Big Bad himself, then as The Dragon when the true Big Bad shows. Then the real Dragon shows...
 * Season 4: Most of the season has no big bad . Late in the season, Adam first appears and becomes the big bad.
 * Season 5: Glory, a.k.a Glorificus
 * Season 6: Appears to have a Big Bad Triumvirate in the form of The Trio of Warren, Johnathan, and Andrew. It quickly becomes clear that Warren is the dominant personality of the three, and he becomes the Big Bad of the season, with his murder of Tara ultimately causing Willow to snap and become the Final Boss after killing him. Joss Whedon has claimed that "life itself" was the Big Bad of Season 6.
 * Season 7: The First Evil
 * Season 8 Comic: Twilight,
 * Season 9 Comic: Apparently rogue Slayer Simone Doffler... though its too early to tell.
 * Xena: Warrior Princess had Ares, Callisto, Caesar, Alti, Dahak and the Olympian gods. Xena may not follow the Seasonal Big Bad formula, but the major villains in the series are all recurring, and (with the exception of Ares and Alti) all follow some form of a linear character arc.
 * Charmed, after it partially abandoned its Monster of the Week premise in season 3:
 * Season 1: To some extent, Rex Buckland and Hannah Webster in the first half of the season.
 * Season 2: No Big Bads.
 * Season 3; The Triad & Cole Turner.
 * Season 4: The Source.
 * Season 5: To some extent, the Crone.
 * Season 6: Gideon.
 * Season 7: Zankou from the demons and Inspector Sheridan in the "real world".
 * Season 8: The Triad and Christy Jenkins.
 * In the second half of City Homicide Season 2, Billy Pierce fills this role as he frames Superintendant Waverley for corruption, before kidnapping and murdering her teenaged son.
 * Despite being a science-themed series heavily grounded in reality aside from a few Through the Eyes of Madness scenes, CSI has had several:
 * Season 1 and 2: Evil Genius serial killer Paul Millander
 * Season 5: Arguably the team's Smug Snake superior Conrad Ecklie. He never does anything illegal, but most of the season's non-crime conflicts (the team breaking up, Sophia being demoted, Catherine turning against the others) trace back to him.
 * Season 7: The Miniature Killer aka Natalie Davis
 * Season 7 Keppler mini-arc: Corrupt Cop Frank McCarty
 * Season 8: Crime boss Lou Gedda, usurped by
 * Season 10: "Dr. Jekyll" aka Charlie Dimasa
 * Season 11: Nate Haskell, after serving as a secondary villain in several earlier season episodes.
 * Season 12: for Catherine's departure arc and  in the finale
 * Likewise, CSI: NY had Shane Casey, the 333 caller, the Cabbie Killer, and the Compass Killer.
 * Chuck: None present in Season One, but sub-sequent seasons had them:
 * Season Two: Ted Roark.
 * Season Three:
 * Season Four: Alexei Volkoff
 * Season Five: Decker
 * "Community:
 * Season 1: Senor Chang, who's difficult class brought the study group together.
 * Season 2: Pierce who's standing deterioated with the group after Advanced Dungeon & Dragons.
 * "Community:
 * Season 1: Senor Chang, who's difficult class brought the study group together.
 * Season 2: Pierce who's standing deterioated with the group after Advanced Dungeon & Dragons.
 * Season 2: Pierce who's standing deterioated with the group after Advanced Dungeon & Dragons.
 * Season 3: Uncertain. But it's a tie between Chang, who's security force is beginning to make it's bid for the school, and Vice Dean Laybourne who wants Troy to join the Air Conditioning Annex and end their friendship with Abed.
 * Dark Angel:
 * Season 1: Manticore, at first personified by Colonel Donald Lydecker, who was later ousted by the Eviler Than Thou Madame X.
 * Season 2: Ames White, who is secretly a government agent assigned to cover up Manticore by hunting down transgenics, and even more secretly a leader in the Familiar Breeding Cult.
 * Season 1 of Dark Oracle has Evil Sorcerer Omen, who is revealed to be the one who saddled Lance and Cally with the Dark World comic in the first place. In Season 2, Vern makes a valiant attempt at becoming the new main villain, before being upstaged by Omen's return. Omen himself has Blaze and Violet in back of him, while  is in back of them.
 * Desperate Housewives has a major mystery for each season, thus who committed said crime can be considered as the Big Bad.
 * Season 1:, since   was the one who killed Deirdre.
 * Season 2: Matthew Applewhite
 * Season 3: Gloria Hodge
 * Season 4: Wayne Davis
 * Season 5: Dave Williams
 * Season 6: Patrick Logan
 * Season 7: Felicia Tilman
 * In Dexter the hero is also the villain, in a version of the Villain Protagonist and Heroic Sociopath tropes, so in one sense Dexter is always his own Big Bad. Each season has its own exterior Big Bad as well.
 * Season 1: The Ice Truck Killer, who is actually.
 * Season 2: Dexter is clearly his own big bad, as he's trying to avoid being caught. There are superficial decoy Big Bads: Lundy, the would-be Hero Antagonist, Doakes,.
 * Season 3:
 * Season 4: Trinity.
 * Season 5:
 * Season 6: Professor Gellar and Travis Marshall
 * Dollhouse had Alpha causing every problem the Dollhouse crew faced in Season 1. Season 2 has the Rossum Corporation as a whole set up this way, but only as of "Getting Closer" (2x11) do we know who the Magnificent Bastard in charge of it is:.
 * Double the Fist has no main antagonist, but Mephisto has entered a similar situation at least twice.
 * In "Bush Bash", he is possessed by a Demi God and tries to destroy the forest (And the Fist Team) using an army of cloned...lumberjack pandas...
 * In Series Two, he almost plays the trope straight by secretly joining the Medieval Recreationists as their leader, and formulated a Evil Plan against the team.
 * Several sesons of Doctor Who have a Big Bad:
 * Season 3: The Daleks
 * Season 4: The Cybermen
 * Season 8: The Master; he was the villain of literally every episode.
 * Season 10: The Daleks, again.
 * Season 16: The Black Guardian, but he doesn't show up until the final episode.
 * Season 18: The new form of the Master.
 * Season 20: The Black Guardian and.
 * Season 23: The Valeyard and the.
 * Season 26 reveals that caused everything in the previous three seasons.
 * Series 1: The Dalek Emperor and his faction of half-human Daleks.
 * Series 2: Started off with John Lumic and his version of the Cybermen. They return for the finale, now led by a generic Cyber-Leader, but they're usurped by ; both factions spent more time fighting each other than the heroes.
 * Series 3: The Master, naturally.
 * Series 4: Featured the resurgent Dalek Empire, represented by Davros,
 * Year of Specials / The End of Time:
 * Series 5 / 6: "The Silence", a movement determined to kill the Doctor in order to  Indirectly caused most of series 5 despite not appearing until the series 6 opening - oh, and they're still around at the end of that series, so we can probably expect them in 7.
 * Farscape: A succession of Big Bads. First it's Crais, then Scorpius, then Grayza, who eventually shares the limelight with the Scarran Emperor. Note that each of these get progressively more epic and ambitious..
 * It is strongly implied in Firefly that the Big Bad was the Blue Sun Corporation, which apparently worked with the Academy.
 * Fringe
 * Season 1: ZFT, led by David Robert Jones.
 * Seasons 2 & 3:
 * Season 4:
 * In both the original and remake of Hawaii Five-O the Big Bad is Wo Fat. Almost every criminal activity is controlled by him.
 * Heroes
 * Season 1:
 * Season 2:
 * Volume 3:
 * Volume 4:
 * Volume 5:
 * Home and Away had the Summer Bay Stalker, AKA Zoe Mac Calister, AKA Eve Jacobsen, during 2005 and 2006.
 * Angie Russell was this in late 2002, early 2003.
 * Suzy Sudiro and Derrick Quaid ran the human trafficking operation that took up the 2009 season. Arguably Hugo Austin, although his motives are ambiguous.
 * Justified has Bo Crowder and the Miami drug cartel in Season 1, and then Mags Bennett in Season 2. Wynn Duffy, head of the Dixie Mafia, may be getting set up to play this role later on, as might Boyd Crowder.
 * The textbook Big Bad for the various Showa-period Kamen Rider series was Great Leader. Although we never learn precisely what he is, he's claimed to be everything from a (relatively) mundane mutant terrorist to a living embodiment of hate and suffering who will exist As Long as There Is Evil. Typically, if there was a series where he wasn't the Big Bad, he'd pop up in the next series and claim to have been the one bossing around the previous show's villains. Other, more recent series have had the following as main villains:
 * Black had the Creation King.
 * Black RX had Grand Lord Crisis, who... may be Great Leader, it's not entirely clear, but they have the same voice actor, whose distinctive voice was Great Leader's calling card.
 * Shin had the Syndicate as well as the CIA, of all things.
 * ZO had the Neo Organism.
 * J had the Fog Mother.
 * Kuuga had N Daguva Zeba, the Grongi Lord.
 * Agito had the Overlord of Darkness.
 * Ryuki had Shiro Kanzaki.
 * 555 had the Smart Brain heads and the Orphnoch King.
 * Blade had Hiroshi Tennoji, though at the end of the series
 * The Movie has the Albino Joker as the Big Bad.
 * Hibiki had The Man and The Woman and all their myriad clones.
 * Kabuto had Negishi.
 * Den-O had Kai the Singularity Point.
 * Kiva had the Bat Fangire.
 * Decade had Apollo Geist at first, then, who are in turn usurped by
 * Double had Ryubee Sonozaki/the Terror Dopant. He was the first big bad in a while to be revealed as one in the first episode. Most of the heisei Kamen Rider Big Bads are revealed after the halfway point or in the final arc.
 * OOO had Dr. Maki. Interestingly, he was supposed to just be the big bad for the second arc, and that Ankh was going to be the final villain, but things changed and he became a fully fledged big bad.
 * The Legend of Dick and Dom  is a mysterious entity behind many of the protagonists' setbacks in season two (showing up- without his identity being revealwed- at the end of each episode to punish the villains who failed to stop them). He is revealed as the antagonist for season three.
 * Lost had an interesting succession, with the scope of the show panning out to reveal a Bigger Bad.
 * Season 1: Didn't seem to have a Big Bad originally. The most reoccuring antagonist that season was The Smoke Monster, who seemed more like a rampaging beast, with Ethan being a runner-up, though it's clear he was just a spy, and it's only in the finale that we see other, well, Others, including Tom Friendly, but they only appear in one scene.
 * Season 2: The survivors originally assume Mr. Friendly is this, but this is confirmed false and instead an unnamed and unseen leader is hinted at. It isn't until the finale when the leader of the Others is revealed to be Benjamin Linus, aka the man who posed as Henry Gale for much of the season.
 * Season 3: Benjamin Linus.
 * Season 4: Charles Widmore, though his Psycho for Hire Martin Keamy gets more screentime.
 * Most of Season 5 skips around with lots of smaller villains, and switching back and forth between Ben and Widmore, until it reveals the true Big Bad of Lost:, who finally plays the primary antagonist role in the sixth and final season directly.
 * In late 2005 and for the first half of 2006, Robert Robinson filled this role on Neighbours
 * Power Rangers. This might take a while:
 * Mighty Morphin: Rita Repulsa, then Lord Zedd, then Rita and Zedd combined, then Rita's dad Master Vile.
 * Power Rangers Zeo: King Mondo, even during a time when he
 * Power Rangers Turbo: Divatox
 * Power Rangers in Space: Dark Specter, who was revealed to be in control of all of the above. Intended to be the final villain, and remains the biggest bad seen on the show to this day.
 * Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: Scorpius, later succeeded by his daughter Trakeena, for real-space and Captain Mutiny for the titular Alternate Dimension. Trakeena proves to be Eviler Than Thou when she kills Mutiny.
 * Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: Queen Bansheera.
 * Power Rangers Time Force: Ransik (redeemed, a rarity for these villains).
 * Power Rangers Wild Force: Master Org, usurped by Mandilok, then Master Org again.
 * Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Lothor
 * Power Rangers Dino Thunder: Mesogog
 * Power Rangers SPD: Emperor Gruumm
 * Power Rangers Mystic Force: The Master was the big one, but there was a series of villains under him that took command in his stead: Morticon, Imperious, and Sculpin.
 * Power Rangers Operation Overdrive: Flurious, Moltor, Kamdor, and the Fearcats; opposed not only to the Rangers but also to one another.
 * Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Dai Shi.
 * Power Rangers RPM: the Venjix computer virus.
 * Power Rangers Samurai: Master Xandred, lord of the Nighloks.
 * It's gonna take even longer for Super Sentai but here goes...
 * Himitsu Sentai Goranger: Black Cross Fuhrer
 * JAKQ Dengekitai: Shine
 * Battle Fever J: Satan Egos
 * Denshi Sentai Denziman: Queen Hedrian.
 * Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan: Black Solar God
 * Dai Sentai Goggle Five: Fuhrer Taboo
 * Kagaku Sentai Dynaman: Emperor Aton
 * Choudenshi Bioman: Doctor Man
 * Dengeki Sentai Changeman: Star King Bazoo
 * Choushinsei Flashman: Great Emperor Ra Deus
 * Hikari Sentai Maskman: Earth Emperor Zeba
 * Choujuu Sentai Liveman: Great Professor Bias
 * Kousoku Sentai Turboranger: Great Violent Demon Emperor Lagorn
 * Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman: Galactic Super Beast Vulgyre
 * Choujin Sentai Jetman: Technically didn't have one since the four major villains were competing to see who could kill the Jetmen first for the position, but Count Radiguet is the closest.
 * Jetman actually subverts this that the Big Bad is actually Empress Juza, though she just lasts 2 episodes and Radiguet pretty much 'takes over' for being the show's technical 'Big Bad' (he was formerly the closest for Juza's Dragon)
 * Tranza also manages to usurp the Big Bad position for several episodes, until Radiguet reclaims that position.
 * Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger: Contrary to popular belief that Bandora is the Big Bad, Dai-Satan holds the position seeing as Bandora is his minion. However, seeing that Satan NEEDS to be summoned by Bandora and is never supervising the day-by-day villainy or reprimanding Bandora for her mistakes, Bandora can still count as the 'technical' Big Bad.
 * Gosei Sentai Dairanger: Emperor Gorma XV
 * Ninja Sentai Kakuranger: Daimaou
 * Chouriki Sentai Ohranger: Emperor Bacchus Wrath, later he is killed off and replaced by his son, Kaiser Buldont
 * Gekisou Sentai Carranger: Emperor Exhaus
 * Denji Sentai Megaranger: Arguably Dr. Hinelar. While he does have a superior, Electric King Javious, the latter is a major The Man Behind the Curtain, and Hinelar knows this and
 * Seijuu Sentai Gingaman: Captain Zahab
 * Rescue Sentai Go Go Five: Grand Witch Grandiene (also an Evil Matriarch)
 * Mirai Sentai Timeranger: At first seems to be Don Dolnero, later revealed to actually be
 * Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger: Actually had THREE Big Bads that merged into one and kicked the heroes around, even kill the source of their powers. Of course they got better.
 * Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: Boss Tau Zanto
 * Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger: Dezmosauria
 * Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: None. All the villains are independent. The closest would be the sole recurring baddie Agent Abrella, who sells them their weapons.
 * Mahou Sentai Magiranger: Absolute God N Ma.
 * Go Go Sentai Boukenger: High Priest Gaja of the Godom Civilization; Creator King Ryuuwon of the Jaryuu Clan; Gekkou of Illusions of the Dark Shadow ninja clan; and Gai and Rei, the last remaining members of the Ashu Tribe. These four are not only against the Boukenger, but also each other, in the quest for the Precious.
 * Juken Sentai Gekiranger: Long
 * Engine Sentai Go-onger:
 * Samurai Sentai Shinkenger: Chimatsuri Doukoku
 * Tensou Sentai Goseiger: Great King Mons Drake, Makuin of the Blob, and Emperor Robogog the 10th in succession..
 * Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger:
 * Tokumei Sentai Gobusters: Messiah, until further notice.
 * Saul Of The Mole Men has Otnip.
 * Sea Patrol
 * Season 1: Rick Gallagher
 * Season 2: Ray Walsman
 * Seaaon 3: Campbell Fulton,
 * The Shield had one in most of it's seasons:
 * Season 1: Ben Gilroy
 * Season 2: Armadillo
 * Season 3: The Armenian mob and Margos
 * Season 4: Antwon Mitchell
 * Season 5: This season plays around with this a bit with Jon Kavanaugh who is more of an Anti-Villain
 * Season 6: There isn't really one this season but it does set up some Big Bads in waiting in the form of Pezuela, the Armenians and
 * Season 7: Has a Big Bad Ensemble with Pezuela, the Cartel, the Armenians, Lloyd and.
 * Sliders after its premise was changed:
 * Seasons 1 & 2: Original premise, no Big Bads.
 * Season 3: Colonel Angus Rickman.
 * Season 4: The Kromaggs.
 * Season 5: Doctor Oberon Geiger.
 * Smallville initially has Lionel Luthor as the main antagonist of Seasons 1-3, although other secondary antagonists, like reporter Roger Nixon, Kal and Jor-El also took a stab at this role in each season respectively. Following Lionel's defeat and subsequent Heel Face Turn, the situation got a lot more complicated, but played out more or less as follows:
 * Season 4: Genevieve Teague, with  and Margaret Isobel Thoreaux as her archrival.
 * Season 5: Brainiac with  as the Bigger Bad he was seeking to unleash.
 * Season 6: Lex Luthor. Yeah the zoners are out there, and Bizzarro's waiting in the wings, but Lex is The Heavy for the season, and is behind almost every problem in series.
 * Season 7: Lex and Brainiac form a Big Bad Duumvirate.
 * Season 8: The most complicated season, with a huge Big Bad Ensemble, including Tess Mercer, Faora,, and Disc One Final Boss Brainiac all vying for the role. All of them have their own agendas, and the complicated plans to back it up. Yet when the smoke clears it's Serial Killer and Anti-Hero Davis Bloome and his Super-Powered Evil Side Doomsday who step up to the plate as The Heavy, providing most of the drama in the season's latter half, and serving as the Final Boss to boot. Arguably a subversion of the classic Big Bad set-up, with the obvious physical threat being much more of a problem than a small army of schemers.
 * Season 9: Major Zod and his cloned Kandorian army, with Tess as a sometimes ally, and Checkmate trying to stop him.
 * Season 10: Darkseid, with Granny Goodness, Desaad, and Glorious Godfrey doing his dirty work. Lots of others try for this role, but compared to Darkseid's ominous presence they just don't cut it. See Big Bad Ensemble for the breakdown though.
 * Arguably, WARLORD SHANK (that's the only way to pronounce his name) is the Big Bad of Space Cases, as he made the most appearances of any villain and was in both Season Finales.
 * Stargate Atlantis: Although the general premise of the series is the battle against the Wraith, even after four and a half seasons no individual character seems to have emerged as a specific Big Bad. There are currently several prominent candidates, including:rogue Wraith and Evil Genius Michael; Oberoth (the leader of the Eviler Than Thou Replicators); and Affably Evil Anti-Villain Todd, who seems to be making a power play for Supreme Wraith Leader. Had the series continued, it looks as though the would have been the next adversary.
 * Stargate SG-1 has a series of Big Bads, although there are often long stretches in the middle seasons where they becomes fairly uninvolved with the plot.
 * Season 1 to 4: Apophis / Sokar / Apophis again
 * Seasons 5 to 8: Anubis
 * Late Season 8: RepliCarter (in addition to Anubis)
 * Season 9 to 10: The Ori / Adria
 * Stargate: Continuum: Ba'al, the final(?) villain, ascending to Big Bad status after 6 seasons as The Starscream.
 * Star Trek: Enterprise:
 * Silik is almost the Big Bad of the first two seasons, but since he's being controlled by Future-Guy, he fell short. The whole story is never really concluded because the Temporal Cold War doesn't really go anywhere and wasn't very popular.
 * The Xindi story of season 3 spent most of the time trying to figure out who among the Xindi Council was reasonable and who wanted to blow up Earth no matter what, or the Big Bad. Eventually
 * Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actually manages a couple:
 * Gul Dukat is Deep Space Nine's premier Big Bad. He starts out as a fairly bog-standard antagonist, becomes a sympathetic character (an Anti-Villain if not Anti-Hero), before crossing the Moral Event Horizon and  He's also the only recurring villain in Star Trek history to
 * The Female Changeling serves as the face of the Founders (the leaders of The Dominion), although Weyoun has a fair amount of face time representing The Dominion as well.
 * Star Trek: Voyager has two Big Bads over the course of the series:
 * For the first two seasons, the ship is hounded by a sect of the Kazon, although the exact Big Bad is debatable: their leader is First Maje Jal Culluh, but The Mole,, has center stage much more often, even going on to menace the heroes a couple more times post-mortem.
 * A few seasons later, when the Borg takes over as Voyager's main adversaries, the role of Big Bad goes to the one controlling them (or the one personifying them, or whatever is going on there), the Borg Queen.
 * Supernatural's overall Big Bad has actually always been, who takes the stage in Season Five. The character who did nearly every action for the entire plan was The Yellow-Eyed Demon aka Azazel, who served as Big Bad in Seasons One and Two. Lilith served the role in Seasons Three and Four.
 * In Season Six, the position of new Big Bad was up in the air for most of the season, with the best contenders being either Crowley, the new King of Hell, or Raphael, the leader of the angels who want . Midway through the season, however, Crowley   and we were introduced to an entity known as the "Mother of All", who seemed set to take up the role. But then, , and soon after it was revealed that Crowley was working with   of all people in order to take over Purgatory. So, it looked like they were going to jointly be the Big Bad of the season. But then in the season finale,   tried to cut Crowley out of the deal, so he retaliated by teaming up with Raphael, making it look like they'd be the Big Bads together after all, only for   So I guess he was the true Big Bad of the season after all.
 * In the very first episode of Season Seven,, he is replaced by the true Big Bad --  . Thus, for most of the season, our heroes are on the run from   -- until.
 * Torchwood:
 * Season 1: Abaddon, though he might qualify more as a Final Boss, with the majority of the work done by his Dragon-in-Chief Billis Manger.
 * Series 2: Gray
 * Series 3: The 456
 * Series 4: The Three Families
 * In season one of True Blood, there was, season two had  , season 3 had  and season 4 had.
 * Twin Peaks: Killer BOB
 * Underbelly: Arguably Carl Williams and Mick Gatto.
 * Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities: Terry Clark and Bob Trimbole
 * The Vampire Diaries has Klaus. Although most of the enemies they faced were his enemies too, they just had ideas of how to go about opposing him that were incompatible with the interests of the main cast.
 * Warehouse 13:
 * Season 1: James McPhearson, who wants to steal Artifacts and sell them to the highest bidder, and also.
 * Season 2: H.G. Wells, of all people, who spends the whole season trying to convince the Warehouse agents otherwise, before stabbing them in the back in order to.
 * Season 3: Walter Sykes, who wants to kill the Regents and destroy the Warehouse as revenge for.
 * In The Wild, Wild West, Diabolical Mastermind Dr. Miguelito Loveless.
 * The Wire:
 * Season One: Avon Barksdale.
 * Season Two: The Greek.
 * Season Three: Stringer Bell.
 * Seasons Four and Five: Marlo Stanfield.
 * World Wrestling Entertainment has owner/chairman Vince McMahon as it's Big Bad. It started when he pulled a Face Heel Turn as a result of the Montreal Screwjob, in which he became the "Mr. McMahon" character, an evil dictator-like boss. Of course like everyone else he's goes through the Heel Face Revolving Door.
 * The X-Files generally had a large amorphous government conspiracy as the Big Bad, and the ambiguously described hostile alien race planning to colonize Earth. The former was largely represented by the Syndicate (its most notable member being the Smoking Man), and the latter by the shapeshifting bounty hunter (seasons 2-8) and by the metallic super soldiers (season 9).
 * Danger 5 has a rather traditional Big Bad - Hitler.