Base-Breaking Character: Puck. He is commonly known as either a hilarious and comedic character, or an annoying nuisance who stayed past his welcome. Of course, there's also a camp who thinks he's only funny when interacting with Wolfgang.
Charles is incredibly popular, especially for a character who wasn't even a contestant. Fans loved his kind, gentle nature, his growing snarkiness towards Layla, and his ultimate reward at the end. Due to his popularity, he makes numerous special appearances in the next story.
Despite being a Flat Character who was booted at the end of the pre-merge, Flora may be the most popular character in the series, rivaling only Chelsey and Layla. Many readers loved her kind nature and her being a parody of the cliche boring character/slotfiller.
Wolfgang, despite being the third boot and not actually speaking until after being eliminated, gained a fandom due to his over-the-top hatred of Puck, great and unique character design, and ever-so-stylish fashion sense. Similar to Flora, he returned for Total Drama: Superstar Showdown and ended up getting tons of character development and winning the season.
Mr. Chapman was loved even when he was just The Ghost who Roz would routinely mention, so his two-chapter appearance naturally went over well. Similar to Charles, he would end up making more appearances in Superstar Showdown due to his popularity and comedic potential.
Heartwarming Moments: Layla WINNING, and realizing that she doesn't need Charles to get work done. Then, she proceeds to make amends with the contestants she was rude to earlier in the season, and gives Charles the million-dollar prize.
Kai and Vivienne's sweet interaction after Vivienne is voted off, although Puck ruins this one with the infamous "beans and cornbread" line (see Memetic Mutation).
Also, Ari giving Tolkien a kiss on the cheek and her rare trading card at her (first) elimination ceremony.
Jerkass Woobie: Layla. She seems to be depressed and lonely, despite (or more likely due to) how rich she is, but she is so unpleasant that it's easy to forget this.
Gail, due to having a label that had nothing to do with her personality or lack thereof ("The Animal Lover") and repeatedly yelling at Ensemble Dark Horse Flora for being boring, despite being commonly known as the most boring character in the story herself. A reader's comment is below:
I loved the characters (except Gail), they were all so unique (except Gail) and every single one had some hilarious moments (except Gail).
Though after the story ended Gail started gaining an ironic fandom and became a common joke among readers, becoming an Ensemble Dark Horse of her own, though still not to the level of Flora.
Thomas was also disliked, mostly for starting out mildly strong but then turning into a Jerkass who was rude to fan favorites Casey and Puck.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Word of God says that Neal, being based on a character from the beloved Freaks and Geeks, was supposed to be just like him and make it far, with funny lines and possibly the ventriloquist plot. But the many other interesting characters on his team made it hard to develop him, and he ended up out-of-character and gone quickly.
Flora and Wolfgang were also prone to this, however both returned for Total Drama: Superstar Showdown and have improved on their previous placings, with them getting third place and winning respectively and receiving tons of development.
Isabel and Vivienne are two characters with an amount of fans but who ultimately don't get as much of focus or development with their respective plots (Isabel possibly being smart and Vivienne's desire for romance and relationship with Kai) as other characters. Not helped in that they're the first two eliminated in the merge.
Charles (for the various torture he has to go through to cater to Layla) and Tolkien (who's constantly rejected by Ari and Roz) can also count as this.
Even Layla herself could count - see Jerkass Woobie above.
