Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Bye-bye (Ugly) Betty?

As someone who loved the first season of “Ugly Betty” and has been indifferent at the sophomore season, news like the following isn’t a surprise:
The network has bumped "Betty” from her regular Thursday 8 p.m. time slot to showcase instead its sitcoms "Samantha Who?"starring Christina Applegate and "In the Motherhood,” a new show starring Megan Mullally and Cheryl Hines.

"Ugly Betty,” starring actress America Ferrera, hits the bench on March 26 and won't return until sometime in June after the regular TV season has ended, reports Entertainment Weekly.
On the surface, going on a three-month hiatus shouldn’t equal the kiss of death for the acclaimed series. Yet “Ugly Betty” has suffered from sagging ratings over the past year; 7.5 million viewers watched the series in mid-January 2009, a drop of over 2 million compared to the same period in 2008. As TV critic Verne Gay noted, “Ugly Betty” is “just one more victim of the '07-'08 (Writers Guild of America) strike - a show that soared before and flopped after".

Despite the somber news there has been one ray of sunshine for “Ugly Betty”: the series was nominated for the 20th annual GLAAD Media Awards.

(Hat tip: Vivirlatino).

Image- Canada.com
Online Sources- Vivirlatino, New York Daily News, AHN, Reuters, newsday.com, TV by the Numbers

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