Ugly Betty

Season one premiered in the United States on September 28, 2006, and aired 23 episodes. Major plot lines during the first season include: Betty and Daniel settling into their respective roles as personal assistant and editor-in-chief at Mode fashion magazine; Betty's relationships with pre-Mode boyfriend Walter and new love interest Henry; Daniel's numerous sexual relationships and his relationship with fellow editor Sofia Reyes (Salma Hayek); Wilhelmina's plots with the "Mystery Lady" to undermine Bradford and Daniel's positions at Meade Publications; Christina's temporary switch to Wilhelmina's side in an attempt to boost her career; the truth behind the murder of Fey Sommers and the death of Daniel's older brother Alex; Ignacio's immigration status and health problems; and Hilda's struggle to find a new career and salvage her relationship with Justin's dad, Santos.

The season's theme was "Brighter, Bolder, Bettyer" with a reworked version of Mika's "Hey Betty (You Are Beautiful)" being used as the featured song in its promos. Nine new recurring characters, played by Freddy Rodríguez, Illeana Douglas, Alec Mapa, David Blue, John Cho, Gabrielle Union, Gene Simmons, and Eddie Cibrian were introduced. Lorraine Toussaint continued in her role as Claire's fellow prison escapee, Yoga, as a recurring character. Production was halted in November 2007 due to the Writers Guild of America strike; ultimately, the season episode order was cut to 18 instead of a proposed 23. New episodes did not air on U.S. television until April 24, 2008, starting with "Twenty Four Candles", and ending on May 22, 2008, with "Jump". This was the last episode to be produced in Los Angeles.

Major plot lines this season include: the love triangle between Betty, Henry, and a deli shop worker named Giovanni "Gio" Rossi; Claire's escape from prison, recapture, and trial for the murder of Fey Sommers; the aborted wedding of Wilhelmina Slater and Bradford Meade; Hilda and Justin's reaction to the murder of Santos in the season-one finale, Daniel and Alexis's power struggle for Mode after their father's death; Amanda's search for her biological father; Marc's relationship with fashion photographer Cliff St. Paul; Hilda's attempt to start her new beautician career and a relationship with Justin's gym teacher; Christina's reunion with her recovering alcoholic husband; and Wilhelmina's scheme to conceive an heir to the Meade fortune using Bradford's sperm.

ABC renewed the series for a third season on February 11, 2008. In addition, production was moved to New York City from Los Angeles to make the series more realistic and to take advantage of increased tax incentives in New York. The third season premiered on September 25, 2008. This season added 10 new recurring regulars, played by Grant Bowler, Mark Consuelos, Heather Tom, Val Emmich, Ralph Macchio, Sarah Lafleur, Bernadette Peters, Lauren Velez, and Daniel Eric Gold. Lindsay Lohan, Julian De La Celle, Derek Riddell, and Eddie Cibrian returned from the second season for more appearances. "The Show" by Australian singer Lenka was used as the promo theme for the season.

The season begins with Betty moving to an apartment in the city, after rejecting both Henry and Gio. Major plotlines include Daniel and Wilhelmina's respective relationships with Molly and Connor—a former couple; Betty and Marc both competing in the YETI program, a series of classes for aspiring editors; Betty's new relationship with Matt Hartley, a wealthy sports editor also taking part in YETI; Christina's surrogate pregnancy for Wilhelmina, and later belief that the baby is in fact her own; Molly developing terminal cancer and Ignacio's heart problems resulting in Betty having to return home, resulting in Marc and Amanda taking on Betty's apartment.

The season was the last that featured Rebecca Romijn and Ashley Jensen as regulars, with Romijin's character Alexis moving to France to be with her son early in the season, and Jensen's character Christina returning to Scotland with her family in episode 20.

Following dropping ratings in season three, Ugly Betty was moved from its Thursday night slot to the "Friday night death slot", resulting in further ratings decreases and protests from fans. Despite moving the show to a new Wednesday night slot in January, ratings failed to improve, and on January 27, 2010, ABC confirmed that the series would end in April, at the same time reducing the season length from 22 to 20 episodes.[45]

Following the events of the season-three finale, Betty is promoted to editor at Mode, but faces increased pressure when her former boyfriend Matt is named as her boss, in addition to hostility from Marc, who was passed over for promotion by Betty. Further storylines include Justin being bullied upon starting high school and subsequent relationship with male classmate Austin; Daniel struggling to adapt following Molly's death; Claire tracking down her long-lost son Tyler and his subsequent alcoholism; Hilda renewing her relationship with Bobby Telercio (Adam Rodriguez) and subsequent engagement and marriage.

The series concludes with the Suarez sisters leaving home, with Betty accepting a new job in London and Hilda and Justin moving out to live with Bobby. Daniel gives up his position at Mode, handing the reins to Wilhelmina; Marc's efforts are finally vindicated via promotion and Amanda is successful in finding her birth father. In the final scene, Daniel bumps into Betty in London, informing her that he is looking for his passion, and Betty jokingly offering him a role as her assistant.

Following news of the show's cancellation, a number of former cast members returned to reprise their roles in guest appearances, including Ashley Jensen, Christopher Gorham, Freddy Rodríguez, and Grant Bowler.

Mode After Hours
Starring	Becki Newton Michael Urie
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	19 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	4 minutes
Release
Original network	ABC
External links
Website

Mode After Hours is a spin-off web series that chronicles the adventures of Marc and Amanda when all (excluding security) staff members have left Mode for the night. The two usually plan on what to do in the future, dressing up as co-workers and mocking them, prepare for a date, going onto online dating sites, competing in certain activities, and inadvertently annoying security.

Though the show mainly features Marc and Amanda, a few other characters are seen whose faces are never shown. Perhaps the only other main character of the show is Marc and Amanda's only nemesis, who is, by far, the only mentioned Meade Publications security officer, named Sander, who is in charge of watching the Mode hallways. Sander would be a judge of some competitions between the two such as dancing, but on a negative note, he collects tapes of Marc and Amanda and is making a collection of the two fooling around.

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.[57] 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 over the American version were made, calling it a pale imitation and counterfeit copy of the original version.[58] 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.[59] While the American version has more than half a dozen core characters, the Colombian version revolves only around Betty and her boss's life with its main plot being Betty's unrequited love for her boss.

Its debut episode on the Seven Network pulled in 2.03 million viewers, beating Nine's airing of 60 Minutes and Ten's airing of The Biggest Loser in the same time period. Since its debut the series has remained in the top five in the Australian TV ratings.[61] The season one finale aired August 5, 2007, and received the lowest rating of the year – 1.051 million and only in the 13th slot of the night. This was predominantly because it aired in the same time-slot as the season premiere of rival program Australian Idol.[62] After holding off on the 2nd season, it was announced in April 2008 that Seven would begin Ugly Betty's second season in a new 7:30 pm Wednesday time slot, beginning on May 7 The show has 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 will resume airing the remaining episodes until after the Olympics. It was replaced by "RSPCA Animal Rescue".[63] Ugly Betty returned to Seven on August 28, 2008, at a new and later time slot of 9:30 pm Thursdays. The episode aired, "Bananas For Betty" was viewed by only 597,000 viewers and was removed. Seven later announced that Ugly Betty will return twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm, starting when Summer begins. It was then moved to only once a week at Thursday 7:30 pm. 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 will resume with the premiere of Season 3, "The Manhattan Project", starting Tuesday, November 3, 7:30 pm.[64]

Citytv owns the English-language rights to the series, which aired in the same timeslot as the American broadcast till 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.[65]

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.[66][67]

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.[68]

The premiere on Channel 4 on January 5, 2007, attracted 4.5 million viewers.[69] Two weeks later, Ugly Betty hit a new high with 5.5 million viewers watching the third episode.[70] 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.[71] Due to the show's success and the fanbase it achieved in the UK, 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.

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 Ellen DeGeneres (played by Nicole Parker) 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.[82] American singer Katy Perry in music video "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" spoofed the character of Betty by playing a look-alike named Kathy Beth Terry.

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.[83] Thanks to her performance in that parody, the producers cast White as a guest star in the second season.[84]

Even the cast poked fun at their alter egos. On October 30, 2006, three of the series' cast members, appearing in their characters (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.[85]

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.[86] Hayek will also make a recurring appearance on 30 Rock in the third season.[87]

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.[88] Take180, like ABC, is a Disney company and the parody was featured on ABC's website.

Ugly Betty has also been referenced in 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 airs on BBC One, Jac Naylor (played by Rosie Marcel) refers to a patient as "the one who wears 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, especially 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, presenter 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.[68] New Zealand TV2 also hyped-up Ugly Betty by promoting Tuesday nights as "True Beauty Tuesday", and when the show moved to Sunday nights, it promoted them as "Beautiful Sunday". TV2 also launched competitions for a replica of Betty's poncho.

Ugly Betty logo.

Following the show's debut, the main characters, especially the title character, quickly became fixtures in the lexicon of pop media culture, with the show and its characters getting referenced in parodies, news media stories, and art-imitating-life situations. The show's impact on issues and culture also attracted the attention of the United States Congress, where on January 17, 2007 California congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-32nd, El Monte) saluted Ferrera on both her Golden Globe win and for bringing a positive profile to the Latin and Hispanic communities.[89] 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.[90] 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.

Mark Indelicato and America Ferrera at the 2010 Voice Awards.

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."[91]

Ugly Betty won the Outstanding Comedy Series award by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in April 2007.[92] Judith Light also won a Prism Award for her portrayal as 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),[93] 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).[94] 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.

• Ugly Betty reviews at Metacritic
• first-look in USA Today (August 15, 2006)
• Review in USA Today (September 28, 2006)
• Comparisons between Ugly Betty and The Devil Wears Prada in USA Today (September 26, 2006)
• "It's a 'Bettification' project" from USA Today (October 4, 2006)
• "from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (September 27, 2006)". Archived from the original on November 4, 2006. Retrieved September 28, 2006.
• from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (September 27, 2006)
• from Seattle Post-Intelligencer (September 28, 2006)
• "Ugly, The American" from TIME (November 27, 2006)
• "Be Ugly '07" campaign announced in USA Today (December 20, 2006)
• "The Ugly Truth Behind the Beauty Premium" (January 9, 2013)