Ugly Betty

2006 American comedy drama television series

Ugly Betty is an American comedy drama television series developed by Silvio Horta that aired on ABC from September 28, 2006, to April 14, 2010. The series is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea, which has had many other international adaptations. It revolves the character Betty Suarez (America Ferrera), whodespite her lack of stylelands a job at a prestigious fashion magazine. It was produced by Silent H, Ventanarosa, and Reveille Productions partnered with ABC Studios, with Salma Hayek, Horta, Ben Silverman, Jose Tamez, and Joel Fields serving as executive producers. The pilot was filmed in New York City; seasons one and two were filmed in Los Angeles and seasons three and four were filmed in New York City. During its first three seasons, it aired on Thursday nights, where it was mostly successful. Viewership dropped significantly in the show's third season, particularly in the 18–49 age group. In October 2009, the series was moved to Fridays, where it had trouble finding an audience. The backlash from its fans prompted ABC to move the show to Wednesdays at 10:00 pm Eastern/9:00 pm Central starting January 6, 2010, where it was thought to better complement its Wednesday hits Modern Family and Cougar Town. Despite this, on January 27, 2010, ABC announced it was cancelling the series due to low ratings. In the years since, it has gained a cult following. For a time, there was discussion of a reboot or Ugly Betty movie.

The series has been sold to TV networks and broadcasters in over 130 countries, making this version the most successful of the Betty La Fea franchise, but in the Guinness World Records 2010 El Libro De La Década, it stated that Yo Soy Betty La Fea is the most successful soap opera in the world, upstaging Ugly Betty. In the U. S., Univision aired the Mexican counterpart La fea más bella, which ran weeknights at 8 p. m. (E/P), including Thursdays during the same time Ugly Betty airs. The star of the Mexican version, Angélica Vale, was anticipated to make a cameo in the 22nd episode, playing Betty's "counterpart" from the series, Leticia 'Lety' Padilla Solís; Vale instead appeared in the season finale playing Angelica, an orthodontist's assistant who looks exactly like Lety (pre makeover).

A version of Yo soy Betty, la fea made by Bosnian Federalna Televizija, Croatian RTL Televizija and Serbian Fox Televizija began airing in October 2007. The title of the show was Ne daj se, Nina ("Don't give up, Nina"). After a long audition, newcomer Lana Gojak was cast in the role of Nina (Betty). Other cast members were established actors such as Robert Kurbaša, Edvin Livarić, Bojana Ordinačev, Petar Ćiritović, Andrija Milošević, Kristina Krepela and Sloboda Mićalović. The first, and only, season consisted of just over 50 episodes. Although the storyline followed that of Yo soy Betty, la fea, Lana Gojak's appearance as Nina was based more on the heroine of Ugly Betty than on that of Yo soy Betty, la fea. The series had other elements that were directly borrowed from Ugly Betty. The series did well in ratings, but was too expensive to produce, so a second season was never ordered. In 2007, an Arabic version of Ugly Betty was mentioned, which would have been produced and shot in Dubai. This would have been the first Betty, la Fea–inspired series to be directly adapted from the American version, but the project never came to fruition. On May 24, 2010, the first (and so far only) direct adaptation of Ugly Betty, Georgia's გოგონა გარეუბნიდან (Gogona Gareubnidan, which means "suburban girl") premiered, a mere month and a half after Ugly Betty aired its series finale. The first season consisted of 10 episodes and concluded in August 2010. On January 1, 2014, the first Arabic (Egyptian) version was set to air on OSN ya hala under the name هبة رجل الغراب (Heba Regl El Ghorab, which means "Heba the Leg of the Crow").

In November 2007, Sony Entertainment Television began airing Ugly Betty in South America with Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. However, in Colombia, criticisms about the American version were made, calling it a pale imitation and counterfeit copy of the original version. The series differ greatly; the Colombian version aired as a soap opera with daily cliffhangers, while Ugly Betty airs as a weekly comedy, with occasional cliffhangers.

The TV Guide Network has purchased the rights to air reruns of Ugly Betty on cable television. In addition to its cable run, Ugly Betty is also seen on local stations in the United States as a double run weekend offering, which began in September 2010.

Its debut episode on the Seven Network pulled in 2.03 million viewers, beating Nine Network's airing of 60 Minutes and Ten Network's airing of The Biggest Loser in the same time period. From its debut, the series remained in the top five in the Australian TV ratings. The season one finale aired August 5, 2007, and received the lowest rating of the year – 1.051 million and ranked only 13th of the night. This was predominantly because it aired in the same time slot as the season premiere of rival program Australian Idol. After holding off on airing the second season, it was announced in April 2008 that Seven would begin Ugly Betty second season beginning on May 7. The show had lost its large following, only drawing around 900,000 viewers despite strong advertising attempts by Channel Seven. The show was "shelved" after the ninth episode was shown on July 2, and airing the remaining episodes was put on hold until after the Olympics. It was replaced by RSPCA Animal Rescue. Ugly Betty returned to Seven on August 28, 2008. The episode aired, "Bananas For Betty", was viewed by only 597,000 viewers and was removed. Seven later announced that Ugly Betty would return twice a week starting in the fourth quarter of 2008. It was then moved to only once a week. Soon after, the show was pulled from screening (after finishing the second season) due to moderately low ratings. It was later confirmed on October 23, 2009, that Ugly Betty would return to Australian screens on Seven's new secondary digital channel 7Two. It was to resume with the premiere of Season 3, "The Manhattan Project", starting November 3.

Citytv owns the English language rights to the series, which aired in the same timeslot as the American broadcast until December 2009, when only the stations in Manitoba and British Columbia started airing it Wednesdays at 7 pm (same time as Eastern ABC where it would be 10 pm, aired earlier than US air in Manitoba), for Ontario and Alberta, OMNI simulcasted Betty Wednesdays at 10PM. In March 2010, Citytv aired Ugly Betty across Canada due to the cancellation of The Jay Leno Show, airing Wednesdays at 10 pm on Citytv, simulcasting ABC's broadcast up until final airing.

The first two episodes aired on TF1 on January 7, 2008, at late night time, averaging about 3.8 million viewers (28.4% share) and 3.3 million viewers (39.4% share). Ugly Betty did well in key demos 15–24 (First episode: 46.8%, second episode: 56.7%) and 18–49 (First episode: 39.7%, second episode: 56.6%). But week after week, the show lost more than 1 million viewers, in part due to the late night schedule. In an effort to attract more viewers, two weekly TV magazines, Arthelius and Series TV Magazine, included Ugly Betty on their covers for their February 12, 2008, issues.

Ugly Betty premiered in South Africa on Pay Channel, M Net on Tuesday July 17, 2007. It later was re broadcast on sister channels, GO and M Net Holiday. The first season fared well with audiences and was a hit for the channel with strong buzz surrounding the show. Due to heavy promotions for the show across all media spectrums by M Net, the premiere episode of Ugly Betty attracted 80% more viewers than Smallville which was the previous occupant of the time slot. M Net marketing General Manager, Koo Govender, said the first episode was watched by about 432,000 viewers.

The premiere on Channel 4 on January 5, 2007, attracted 4.89 million viewers. Two weeks later, Ugly Betty hit a new high with 5.5 million viewers watching the third episode. The figures and shares were similar each week, around 2–3 million viewers with 10–15% share; however, the finale rated less than the premiere episode, attracting 3.1 million viewers with 15% share. Due to the show's success and the fanbase it achieved in the United Kingdom, Channel 4 decided to move up the second season premiere to Friday, October 5, 2007, thus allowing viewers to watch episodes one week after their U. S. airing.

On April 15, 2008, Hyperion Books, a Disney owned publisher, released a companion book to the series, titled Ugly Betty: The Book, a 175 page softcover about the show in general, which covers the first season and portions of the second, complete with interviews from the cast and crew, tips and quotes from the characters, and mock ads for Fabia Cosmetics and Atlantic Attire. Around the same time, Random House's children's books division published a "magazine" inspired book tied into the series, complete with photos and mock ads as if they were published by Betty herself, targeted for younger readers. In addition, a 2008 calendar for Ugly Betty was released using stills from the first season, while a series of greeting cards was issued in January 2008. These photos were edited to enhance her facial features. A 2009 calendar was also released. Even the main character has been immortalized into a doll, as Angelic Dreamz, Inc's Madame Alexander collection introduced two different versions of Betty Suarez that were featured on their website in February 2008. In July 2009, Coca Cola UK unveiled a special limited edition Diet Coke bottle created by Patricia Field called "The Betty" for sale in the United Kingdom as an exclusive for customers at Selfridges.

Season Timeslot (EDT) Season premiere Season finale TV season Rank Viewers(in millions) 18–49 viewers 1 Thursday 8:00 P. M. September 28, 2006 May 17, 20072006–2007 #35 11.3 3.7 2 Thursday 8:00 P. M. September 27, 2007 May 22, 20082007–2008 #53 9.4 3.6 3 Thursday 8:00 P. M. September 25, 2008 May 21, 20092008–2009 #64 8.0 April 14, 20102009–2010 #82 5.5 1.5

The show has been parodied and referenced in other television shows. In the October 7, 2006, episode of Saturday Night Live, cast member Fred Armisen spoofed the character of Betty by playing a look alike named Fugly Betsy. Not to be outdone, a February 17, 2007, episode of MADtv has Nicole Parker playing Ellen DeGeneres interviewing an actress on her talk show who plays Ugly Betty, with Salma Hayek (played by LisaNova) always pointing out how ugly she is. The Ugly Betty actress (played by Crista Flanagan) claims it is only makeup and costume but is ignored. Crista later reprised her Betty role in the poorly reviewed parody film Meet the Spartans. On April 22, 2007, the 2007 TV Land Awards parodied the series with a spoof aptly titled "Ugly Betty White", with White playing Betty Suarez, Charo playing Hilda, Erik Estrada playing Ignacio, Joan Collins playing Wilhelmina, Peter Scolari playing Alexis, and George Hamilton playing Daniel. Thanks to her performance in that parody, the producers cast White as a guest star in the second season. Even the cast poked fun at their alter egos. On October 30, 2006, three of the series' cast members, appearing in character (Ferrera as Betty, Mabius as Daniel, and Newton as Amanda), gave New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick a "makeover" to make him look more like quarterback Tom Brady in a spoof that was featured on ESPN's Monday Night Countdown. The program was also referenced in other shows, most notably in "Up All Night", the February 8, 2007, installment of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, in which Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) says "this would've worked on Ugly Betty" when she fails to crawl out a door without being seen. The scene was patterned after the Ugly Betty episode "Swag" in which Betty crawled through a fashion show. In an episode of the TV sitcom Scrubs, Christopher Turk (played by Donald Faison) has a picture taken of "Ugly Betty" with his daughter, only for it to be torn up by best friend and main character John Dorian. In March 2009, a spoof of Ugly Betty, called Ugly Yeti was made by Take180. Take180, like ABC, is a Disney company and the parody was featured on ABC's website. Ugly Betty has also been referenced on television shows in the United Kingdom. In the series finale of BBC One hotel based drama series Hotel Babylon, aired in August 2009, Ben Trueman (played by Michael Obiora) asks fellow front desk employee Melanie Hughes (played by Amy Nuttall) "How long have you had those Ugly Betty braces?" while giving Hughes a makeover, to which she replies: "About 18 months". In a 2010 episode of medical drama series Holby City, which also aired on BBC One, Jac Naylor (played by Rosie Marcel) refers to a patient as "the one with the Ugly Betty braces". In 2013, Ortiz returned to television in the Lifetime dramedy Devious Maids, which like Ugly Betty was also based on a telenovela. In the series, Ortiz plays Marisol Duarte, a newly hired maid who is determined to find out who framed her son for the murder of a maid. Ironically, it was revealed in the series' seventh episode "Taking a Message" that Marisol's true identity was that of a professor and her real last name was Suarez. It is not known if this was done intentionally but it does give Ortiz the homage of playing characters with the same last name on two different shows.

The buildup to "Bettymania" by various broadcasters also began to take shape overseas, most notably in the United Kingdom. On December 6, 2006, Channel 4 began to advertise the show. The ad shows seemingly attractive models gathered around a pool, but as the camera angle changes a model comes out of the pool wearing Betty's glasses, then as the models smile, they are all wearing Betty's braces. Another ad parodies Marks and Spencer's successful fashion advertising campaign, as well as Dove and Gap campaigns. A voice over then says, "Fashion has a new face. 'Ugly Betty' Coming Soon To 4." After a week of these teasers, clips from the actual program were included in the trailers. In mid January, Davina McCall, host of Celebrity Big Brother dressed up as Betty live on Channel 4 before the titles of the second eviction show of the evening. On February 16, 2007, Ashley Jensen (Christina) also dressed up as Betty during an airing of Channel 4's Friday Night Project, where she was the guest host. The children's channel CBeebies also parodied the title sequence, with one variation mixing faces of regular CBeebies characters until finally settling with Tiny from Little Robots. In Australia, during the week leading up to the Sunday premiere of Ugly Betty, February 12 to 17, 2007, Channel Seven devoted a week of Deal or No Deal to the show by having the models dress like Betty, complete with the Guadalajara poncho. Channel Seven also used the series to promote its successful "Beautiful Sundays" schedule. In South Africa, M Net teamed up with Ogilve Johannesburg to hype up its campaign for the show, which included a picture of Betty on the mock cover of Elle magazine. In addition to that recognition, on May 8, 2007, star America Ferrera was honored by TIME on the magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people. The event took place at New York's Lincoln Center and the actress was recognized for defying stereotypes with the show. The success of Ugly Betty and how it dealt with body imaging among women in general inspired a series of reports on Entertainment Tonight, in which reporter Vanessa Minnillo went undercover in a fatsuit to see if women were discriminated on the basis of appearance. LGBT awareness groups like GLAAD have also noted the positive impact the show has had particularly in regard to the coming out storyline of Betty's teenaged nephew Justin. Female education activist Malala Yousafzai has cited Ugly Betty as an early and important source on her development as a feminist. She was encouraged by her father to watch the show to improve her English and was struck by the freedom Betty and her friends had "as they walked freely down the streets of New York with no veils covering their faces and no need for men to company them." Malala revealed in her memoir that she dreams of moving to New York City and working at a magazine, much like the show's titular character.

The series won two Golden Globe Awards on January 15, 2007, for "Best Leading Actress in a Comedy Series" (America Ferrera) and Best Comedy Series. Ferrera also won a SAG Award on January 28, 2007, for "Best Actress in a Comedy Series". On June 4, 2007, the series was honored with a Peabody Award "for demonstrating that wit and humanity never go out of style." Ugly Betty won the Outstanding Comedy Series award by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in April 2007. Judith Light also won a Prism Award for her portrayal of Claire Meade. On July 19, 2007, the series received 11 nominations at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards in the Comedy category (the most of any comedy series), including Outstanding Comedy Series, Best Actress (Ferrera), Best Supporting Actress (Williams), and Best Guest Starring Actress (Hayek for her role as Sofia; Light for her role as Claire. Both lost to Elaine Stritch). It won three awards — Best Casting in a Comedy Series, Best Direction in a Comedy Series (for the show's pilot episode), and Best Actress in a Comedy Series (Ferrera). For its second season, it received six other Primetime Emmy Award nominations, going home empty handed. Overall, Ugly Betty has been nominated for eighteen Emmy Awards. Although The NAACP Image Awards honors African Americans in the entertainment industry, the series won five of the Image Awards' eight major TV categories, a rarity among television series with a multicultural cast. In addition to winning an Image award for the TV series in 2007 and Ferrera for best actress in 2008, Vanessa Williams won back to back honors (in 2007 and 2008) in the Supporting Actress category for her portrayal of Wilhelmina Slater. Owing to the massive success of "Ugly Betty" in the United Kingdom, Ugly Betty was nominated for Most Popular Comedy Programme at the National Television Awards in October 2008, but lost to domestic ITV comedy series Benidorm. The ALMA Awards honors the Hispanic entertainment community. During its first season, Ugly Betty won four of its first seven nominations, and in the second season took home three more, along with a Chevrolet Entertainer of the Year Award for Ferrera for her work on the show. Overall, the series has received 162 nominations.