Popularity Power/Live-Action TV

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Examples of Popularity Power in Live-Action TV include:

  • Sylar from Heroes. He's cheated death a half a dozen times and reached belief-defying heights of Joker Immunity because the writers seem in love with him. Not only does he have a myriad of powers (which he can increase as the plot demands, though not without some justification) he's survived two near fatal attacks (one of which he was originally planned to die from), escaped imprisonment three times, and Elle completely misses him twice with electric blasts when she nailed fast flyer West in one shot. In short, he's a Villain Sue.
  • In Angel, "Destiny" had Angel and Spike in a titanic, epic brawl in an episode sometimes labeled a 'fan dream.' Spike often leads fan polls in popularity with Angel right behind him. Remember, Badass Decay only happened because he was a fan favorite. Originally the episode was to have Angel win, because it is his show, but the writers realized that they were missing a golden opportunity to drive home Angel's loss of motivation. Once Angel got back his groove in later episodes he would soundly beat Spike in a normal fight, even once as a puppet. Although in fairness, Spike was paralyzed with laughter for that one. It's also worth noting that Spike actually beat Buffy in a fight once, which Angel never did.
    • Pretty much most of the focus of the Angel series was that he was well-known and going to be a popular player in the apocalypse. But on whose side? Turns out he was well in the midst of it already, who said the apocalypse couldn't drag out over decades?.
  • In a bit of an odd example, Iron Chef America and Iron Chef Bobby Flay. Now, he doesn't win an unfair amount, but he gets chosen more than every other chef in the show by a huge margin because he's the most popular Food Network star in the series. Basically, the episodes in which he's chosen get a lot more views than any other chef's, so Food Network has him picked all the time.
  • Jerry Springer didn't win Dancing With the Stars, but he got a lot farther than his dancing talent alone would have carried him. It got to the point that he actually asked his fans to stop voting for him, as he only appeared on the show to learn to dance and was tired of coming back.
    • This is also arguably the reason why Jerry Rice won out over Stacy Keibler. Many people thought that Keibler was the most talented dancer on the show.
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