Ugly Betty

Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which was originally broadcast on ABC. It premiered on September 28, 2006, and ended on 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 around 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. However, 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. Production The idea to bring Ugly Betty to American TV screens began in 2001 when NBC was planning to adapt Betty as a half-hour comedy, which would be produced by Columbia TriStar Television (now Sony Pictures Television) but it did not get past the planning stages (three writers were needed to come up with a concept based around the character) until ABC and Hayek's company came on board in 2004 and retooled it as an hour-long comedy drama. Two years later, on May 16, 2006, ABC announced that Ugly Betty would be part of the 2006–2007 North American season lineup as a weekly hour-long series; the initial order was for 13 episodes. ABC had announced the title of the series would be Betty the Ugly, a change from its developmental title, but changed it back to Ugly Betty on July 14, 2006, although the Ugly Betty title was already being used in promotions prior to this date on Citytv.