In the fall of 2006, Ugly Betty premiered to great buzz and 16 million viewers. Though originally scheduled for Friday nights, ABC confidently “promoted” the show to Thursday nights – where it held its own opposite CBS’s perennial time-slot leader Survivor. In the wake of its fourth season, the show has since been unfairly alienated by once-loyal viewers, critics and even its own network.
Everybody Loves ‘Betty’
Betty maintained her buzz throughout that first season with outrageous storylines, sharp dialogue and a delightfully fresh cattiness that would make Sue Ann Nivens proud – all with unexpected heart.
The show rode that buzz to a Golden Globe win for Best Comedy Series, a Golden Globe win for title star America Ferrara as Best Actress, a SAG win for Ferrara as Best Actress and 11 Emmy nominations including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress (Ferrara) and Outstanding Supporting Actress (Vanessa Williams as the calculating Mode Creative Director Wilhelmina Slater) resulting in a win for Ferrara.
Though ratings settled to a still-solid 11 million viewers by the end of its first season, hopes were high that the show’s second season would maintain the strength of its first. Despite a ratings decline from the previous year that was also suffered by most network prime-time shows that season, Ugly Betty remained just as outrageous, sharp and catty as expected. The show was rewarded with another Globe nomination for Ferrara and SAG nominations again for Ferrara and Williams.
The Sophomore Saga
The second season was unfortunately derailed by the three-month-long Writer’s Guild strike. Like other serialized hour-long programs, the show did not bounce back as well as their half-hour counterparts. Its episode order was reduced from the planned 23 down to 18, forcing some planned storylines to be truncated, reworked, hastened or even scrapped altogether.
Ugly Betty completed its strike-ravaged second season amid criticism of a decline in creativity that concentrated on the outrageous at the expense of the sharp and catty with heart. Also lamented was the shift from Betty herself to more secondary characters. Coupled with a three-month hiatus, the show ratings also took another hit. Nonetheless, repeat Emmy nominations came in for Ferrara and Williams.
Back on Track
Leading into season three, a production shift from Los Angeles to New York cost the show a few cast members (Rebecca Romijn as Daniel’s brother-turned-sister Alexis, Freddy Rodriguez and Christopher Gorham as Betty’s respective love interests Gio and Henry) but within the first few episodes, the writers quickly resolved some dangling plot lines that proved unpopular (Betty and boss Daniel no longer working at Mode) or went nowhere (Daniel possibly fathering a child). Ugly Betty returned with a more equitable mix of outrageous, sharp and catty with heart that recaptured much of what made the show great in the first place while still showing a maturity and depth befitting a third-year program. Secondary characters such as co-workers Marc and Amanda (Michael Urie and Becki Newton), who had previously been used primarily for comic relief at the expense of our heroine, were now allowed to show even more of the depth and layering we had been teased with in the first two seasons. Even Daniel Meade (Eric Mabius) himself, long established as a playboy who always shirked responsibility before falling into his role as Mode Editor-in-Chief, accepted possible fatherhood and took on a serious relationship while going to great lengths to save his family’s company from going under.
The show unfortunately had a tough time reclaiming viewers who defected in season two and ABC shelved Ugly Betty toward the end of the season in order to make room for new series In the Motherhood and second-year series Samantha Who?. Ratings for that slot declined even further and Ugly Betty was brought back less than a month into its planned six-week hiatus to complete the season -- which was rewarded with a third Outstanding Supporting Actress nomination for Vanessa Williams.
The Case for “Betty”
The fourth season of Ugly Betty begins next month in a new Friday time slot, which typically portends a death knell. ABC, denying what was clearly a plan to nicely put the show out to pasture, cites rating declines – particularly in comparison to its lead-out but far more buzz-generating Grey’s Anatomy. Aside from American Idol, there aren’t any top shows airing in the 8pm hour – much of this likely has to do with consumer lifestyles these days affected by the demands of work. Perhaps ABC should also consider the performances of other 8pm shows as they compare to that of Ugly Betty.
Ugly Betty has endured a strike, unnecessary hiatuses as well as a slap-in-the-face time slot reassignment and deserves better treatment from its network. If the show had to be moved in order for ABC to shore up its Thursday night lineup, a more logical solution would be to have the Betty lead off Wednesday nights instead of launching a night of new programs in the same manner that failed two seasons ago.
Even if the network has given up on the show, viewers should not.
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