SyntaxError: Unexpected token o in JSON at position 1

Question

The JSON you posted looks fine, however in your code, it is most likely not a JSON string anymore, but already a JavaScript object. This means, no more parsing is necessary.

You can test this yourself, e.g. in Chrome's console:

new Object().toString()
// "[object Object]"

JSON.parse(new Object())
// Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token o in JSON at position 1

JSON.parse("[object Object]")
// Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token o in JSON at position 1

JSON.parse() converts the input into a string. The toString() method of JavaScript objects by default returns [object Object], resulting in the observed behavior.

Try the following instead:

var newData = userData.data.userList;

The first parameter of the JSON.parse function is expected to be a string, and your data is a JavaScript object, so it will coerce it to the string "[object Object]". You should use JSON.stringify before passing the data:

JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(userData))

Don't ever use JSON.parse without wrapping it in try-catch block:

// payload 
let userData = null;

try {
    // Parse a JSON
    userData = JSON.parse(payload); 
} catch (e) {
    // You can read e for more info
    // Let's assume the error is that we already have parsed the payload
    // So just return that
    userData = payload;
}

// Now userData is the parsed result

Just above JSON.parse, use:

var newData = JSON.stringify(userData)

We can also add checks like this:

function parseData(data) {
    if (!data) return {};
    if (typeof data === 'object') return data;
    if (typeof data === 'string') return JSON.parse(data);

    return {};
}

You can simply check the typeof userData & JSON.parse() it only if it's string:

var userData = _data;
var newData;
if (typeof userData === 'object')
  newData = userData.data.userList; // dont parse if its object
else if (typeof userData === 'string')
  newData = JSON.parse(userData).data.userList; // parse if its string