I've noticed that the nouns that go after a collective noun often have either "a"/"zero" article even when the logic suggests using "the". (I'm using the term "zero/a" because "zero" and "a" are very similar in meaning)
When I was at that restaurant I was approached by a group of _ waiters
I was at the lecture but I noticed that a lot of _ students weren't listening
Despite "waiters" being expected in this context (as well as students). We use "zero" instead of "the". I think that's because collective nouns often force us to emphasize the class of the object we're talking about, thus making us opt for "a/zero" (since only "a/zero" has this classifying function)
To test this hypothesis I want ask you to look at the following sentence:
I started watching this TV series a few days ago and my friend told me that the majority of ? characters will die by the end of season 1.
Should I say "the characters"? They are obviously expected to be present in a TV series, however, being used after a collective noun "the majority of" might force us to use "zero/a"