History Main / EverybodyIsSingle

* Likewise on ''Series/{{CSINY}}.'' The series opens with no one on the team even in a serious dating relationship, much less being married. Mac was, but is a widower and isn't in a truly committed relationship until halfway thru the 8th of the 9 seasons. Subverted with Danny & Lindsay finally getting married in season 5, after an on-again/off-again period. M.E. Sid Hammerback is married when he shows up in season 2, but ends up twice divorced by the series end. Don has a serious relationship with a fellow officer, but it ends when [[spoiler: she is killed in the line of duty.]] As of the finale, Mac is engaged to an old friend; while Don is dating yet another officer, and Sheldon and Adam are seeing minor recurring characters, but it is unknown how serious any of those three relationships will turn out to be.

* Though this happens in a lot of sports movies, it's extra-noticeable in ''Film/TheGamePlan'' starring Dwayne Johnson. Not only is almost the entire team of professional sports stars unmarried and single, all but one (besides Johnson's character) aren't parents either, and are merciless with their teasing about his new status. In real life, of course, a '''lot''' of professional sports stars are married and/or parents.

* Downplayed in ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'', as Shinshi often mentions having a wife at home. The rest of the main cast are single, but considering their personalities, that's hardly surprising.

* In the Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novels, the decision to give ex-companion Franchise/BerniceSummerfield her own spin-off series -- in which, as lead character, she would be expected to participate in romantic-interest subplots -- led directly to the messy collapse of her marriage in ''Eternity Weeps'', which upstaged the violent deaths of a tenth of the Earth's population. This, ''less than a year'' after [[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresHappyEndings an entire novel was devoted to the wedding]] and much effort was expended in assuring readers that it was HappilyEverAfter-type True Love.

* The only long-term romance shown in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' is Kashiwagi and her boyfriend ([[spoiler:at least until Kaguya and Shirogane finally hook up over Christmas break]]). And despite most of the characters' parents being married, the only one we see with any regularity (Shirogane's father) has been estranged from his wife for seven years.

[[folder: Video Games]]

** Notably averted by ''ComicBook/SpiderMan''. He managed to hang onto Mary Jane for decades. At least until the relationship was {{retcon}}ned out of existence in the ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'' storyline. That, and Comicbook/LoisLane and [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]], whose relationship resulted in a marriage.
*** The Spider-Man example is particularly notable, since both the above comic and ComicBook/TheCloneSaga were explicitly made to be an extremely convoluted series of {{Retcon}}s all for the purpose of making Spider-Man single again. This backfired ''monumentally'' with the fans (Mary Jane was really popular with them, and Creator/StanLee), and the flaws can be summed up in [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara's]] tirade on reviewing ''One More Day''.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', none of the staff at Hogwarts seem to be married or indeed to ever have been able to sustain a proper relationship. The only counterexample is in the future, with [[spoiler:Neville being Herbology professor and married to Hannah Abbot.]]

* On ''Series/TwentyFour'', this is universally true at CTU -- however, this is partly because of ''Series/TwentyFour'''s recurring theme of the conflict between family vs. duty. Hence, there are a lot of divorcees and widows featured on ''Series/TwentyFour''.

* Initially true in ''Series/{{Bones}}'', but notably averted by the eventual marriage of the on-again/off-again [[spoiler: Hodgins and Angela]].
** Though they all date throughout the show.
** By the time they get to [[spoiler: season 6, most of the cast are in committed relationships with children]].
* The only married character of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' divorced in the third season--but everyone's favorite tech kitten is dating ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'''s Xander, and it looks like certain other characters might start getting some... Also, JJ has been living with and dating Will since season three. They even have a son together!
** JJ and Will are now married, but Garcia split from Kevin (Xander), and everyone else is still single. Newcomer Alex Blake is the only exception, though she hardly got to see her husband, James, due to the fact that he was almost always abroad with Doctors Without Borders. In "#6", though, we find that he took a job as a professor at Harvard and asked Alex to join him. [[spoiler: Alex says no, but agrees to visit him during the weekend and on holidays.]]
* In ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', everyone working at the bar is initially unmarried. Sam and Carla are divorced, and Coach is widowed. Of the customers, Cliff remains single, Norm is married, to the [[TheGhost never seen]] Vera, and Frasier and Lilith marry each other during the course of the series. Averted with Woody, who marries Kelly during the tenth season and is still happily married to her many years later according to SpinOff ''Series/{{Frasier}}''.
** This caused a problem when Rhea Perlman (Carla) who in real life is married to Danny [=DeVito=], got pregnant. Since her character was shown as a trollop they just had her get pregnant by one of the guys she was dating. However, at the same time Shelly Long (Diane), who was also married (to a stockbroker) in real life, got pregnant, and it would look ridiculous to show both bar maids as pregnant, so they mostly hid Diane behind various fixtures to disguise her pregnancy.

* Also true on ''Series/{{JAG}}'', with the exception of [[HappilyMarried Bud and Harriet]].
** In a first season episode, Harm and Meg are investigating the death of a Marine recruit. While investigating an alibi, Harm discovers that one of the female Drill Instructors (who had recently applied for Officer Candidate School) is romantically involved with the CO of the base. At the end of the episode, the DI asks if he's going to report them for fraternization. Harm replies he'll overlook it, if she gets her commission within the next 6 months.

* Going strong so far on ''Series/TheMentalist''. Viewers know little of Lisbon and Cho's personal lives (except Cho's seems to consist largely of working steadily through very thick books), with the impression they're too consumed with their work to bother. Rigsby loves van Pelt, but van Pelt initially runs like a frightened rabbit from the idea because as the junior member of the team, she'd get transferred out if she started dating a coworker (and she doesn't come off as that into Rigsby anyway). Jane, meanwhile, lost his wife and daughter to a pissed off serial killer he was helping to hunt, and still hasn't recovered emotionally.

* Also ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' with almost all of the expedition members being single. Justified as they were chosen ''because'' they didn't have significant people waiting for them. (It was a one-way mission to another galaxy). Elizabeth who is initially the exception, breaks up with her boyfriend expressly for this reason.

** Other Franchise/StarTrek play it pretty straight. On ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS]]'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' all of the main cast were single, or at least appeared to be. We never saw anything of Uhura's or Sulu's personal lives, while each of the others had at least one romance story.
*** On ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' Janeway had been in a relationship and Tuvok was married prior to getting lost in the Delta Quadrant, their situation made them essentially single. Eventually, Janeway found out he boyfriend had moved on believing her to have died, but Tom and B'Elanna get married, so it evens out. Janeway does toy with the idea of dating in... odd places, namely the Holodeck, but Tuvok never even considers straying from his wife.

** [[spoiler: Catherine/Vartann is canon, and Wendy/Hodges is... sorta canon. She kissed him, but it was never really said if they're in a relationship. Maybe we'll find out in the premiere, right around the same time that we never see Wendy again because they fired Liz Vassey...]]

* In ''LightNovel/HowToRaiseABoringGirlfriend'' not only the whole main cast is single despite having "two most beautiful girls in school" (at least according to Megumi), but also Tomoya insists that Megumi doesn't see any other men, including her cousin, and remains "a heroine who saves herself for the players".

* None of the fighters in ''Manga/KenganAshura'' are in an official romantic relationship, despite most of them being ''at least'' in their late [=20s=]. Most of the [=CEO=]s don't seem to have a spouse either, despite being even older and some of them even have children (Metsudo's children--Sayaka and Retsudo--are sired by his unseen mistresses). Kazuo and Erioh were married, but Kazuo's wife had left him long before the story begins, while Erioh's has probably passed away. While there are ShipTease between several of the characters, only Nezu and Miki (who aren't really important to the plot anyway) get an explicit RelationshipUpgrade ... [[OffScreenRomance during the time skip]] between ''Ashura'' and ''Omega'', after which Nezu retires as a fighter and disappears from the story altogether.

This is common in {{Sit Com}}s such as ''Series/{{Friends}}'', but is more jarring and noticeable in dramas such as ''Series/{{ER}}'' and ''Series/{{CSI}}''.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', despite the {{Love Dodecahedron}}s, AllLoveIsUnrequited is in effect and of the giant cast very few are capable of getting into a relationship at all, let alone keeping it without breaking up or [[AnyoneCanDie dying]]. The fact that most of the characters are between 13 and 16 helps, but you'd think at least some of them would manage it, and even the adults are pretty uniformly single as well. [[spoiler:Dad and Mom started going out at one point, but...well, here's where that 'without dying' catch comes in.]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', despite the {{Love Dodecahedron}}s, AllLoveIsUnrequited is in effect and of the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters giant cast]] very few are capable of getting into a relationship at all, let alone keeping it without breaking up or [[AnyoneCanDie dying]]. The fact that most of the characters are between 13 and 16 helps, but you'd think at least some of them would manage it, and even the adults are pretty uniformly single as well. [[spoiler:Dad and Mom started going out at one point, but...well, here's where that 'without dying' catch comes in.]]

* The ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series has this in the earlier stories as a common issue. While there are many couples, the main character is very single with romance subplots. LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters with the Author taking 12 books to start cleaning up loose ends.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

* Virtually none of the fighters in ''Manga/KenganAshura'' are officially in a relationship with anyone, despite all of them being ''at least'' in their late [=20s=]. Most of the [=CEO=]s don't seem to have a spouse either, even though they are even older and some of them even have children (Metsudo's children--Sayaka and Retsudo--are sired by his unseen mistresses). The only exception to this is Kazuo, whose wife had left him years before the series began, and Erioh, whose wife probably had passed away. Several characters mention having parents, but none of them are ever shown in-story. The closest thing the series have to a romantic relationship is Rei's obssessive devotion for Rino (although it's unclear if Rino actually reciprocates his love, and they go on separate ways after [[spoiler:Rei loses to Kuroki]] anyway), Karla's over-the-top desire to marry Ohma (which he doesn't reciprocate), and the close-but-not-exactly-romantic relationship between Fusui and Henzo (who are technically relatives) and Dr. Hanafusa and Kokomi (which mostly consists of the latter being the former's CloudcuckoolandersMinder).