It's not getting the ratings it used to, but I don't think we need to fear cancellation--yet. However, ABC barely promotes this show.

Anyway, new episodes start again this week (Jan 8) with "Dress for Success."

I noticed that too. Maybe ABC lost interest when it didn't get any Golden Globe nominations this year. I hope UB gets at least one more season. I still love it and unlike Heroes, it doesn't leave me frustrated.

I almost forgot today was a new episode.

Bush preempts Betty.
Is there no end to this man's ability to create havoc?

Tomorrow's episode will air next week.

Grrrrrr--for 15 stupid minutes, the entire hour is preempted. Well, guess I have a free hour on Thursday now!

Fuuuuuck. Like I didn't hate Bush enough already. :/

Oh well, it just means one less re-run later on.
*trying to see the bright side*

So, UB gets bumped and we get "Scrubs" instead? Why not just move everything back 15 minutes the way any NORMAL station does with football, so the whole night can be shown in entirety? ABC, I fucking HATE you. And you too, Bush.

I was hoping they would at least show here in the Bay Area the episode they preempted last year and have never shown. But no, that would have made sense.

Please don't tell me that ABC doesn't care for Ugly Betty anymore with the lack of promos and being preempted in favor of stupid specials. Yes the ratings aren't as good as it was, but surely this show doesn't deserve that kind of treatment.

In worst case scenario, they are concocting a set this show up, just like they did for the three shows they had canceled. If this ever happens, there will be another reason to hate ABC.

Just out of curiosity, which episode was this? I'm in the Bay Area but catch all my episodes online, so I probably didn't miss it, but a couple of my dorm-mates watch it on TV so they might have.

It was 3x10 - "Bad Amanda". I think a Raiders-49ers game preempted it.

I didn't see any promos for the new episode. Mostly for Lost and Grey's Anatomy.

Ugh! It's like the promo department completely ignores this show. You'd think at least they'd try and play up some of the guest stars.

And next week is a re-run; the next new ep is 2 weeks from now. What's up with the funky scheduling ABC??

That's what I want to know. Are there some TV specials we don't know about?

It's idiotic they've got a re-run coming up next, especially since we lost last week's episode to Bush's speech. It's almost like ABC doesn't want UB to get any kind of momentum.

I think there's a special or something, because the next episode of Grey's Anatomy is also two weeks from now.

The fact that they are replacing UB in the mid-season schedule,



But

Er.

Six frigging weeks without UB? What. the. hell. Is Season 3 going to have less episodes or will it extend into summer when it resumes?

I know UB isn't the ratings winner it once was, but it looks like ABC couldn't really afford to be screwing over one of their more solid shows for this "In the Motherhood" shite. *Sigh*

ETA: Oh, nevermind my question above. Regular amount of episodes, just more spread out. I guess it's not that uncommon for a network to do this, but I do wish they'd let UB keep up some momentum.

I don't know, this doesn't seem like good news for the show. The show hasn't had nearly as much buzz as it did its first year (and for good reason) but it's an established show that's received a bunch of awards. Do they really think Samantha Who and whatever that other show is will do better? Are they trying to recreate NBCs Must See TV formula from 5 years ago?

I am a bit concerned as to what this means for the future of the show. Still, I don't see these shows doing better than UB ratingswise. It just frees me up to watch Bones live on Thursday nights, since I have zero interest in either Samantha Who or whatever this new Motherhood show is.

If ABC was going to screw around with the schedule, I wish they would've run UB's season straight through without breaks, instead of this on-again-off-again crap.

Ausiello's calculations are that it won't be back until June, assuming the other two shows don't get pulled early either.

Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.


Totally agree with you there. I don't understand, really. It's not a "mega-hit" like Grey's (which they promote a whole bunch more), but it ain't a flop either. They should not be screwing with the scheduling!

Well, I hate this because I [used to] love this show, but I can't say it isn't undeserved. The quality of writing on this show has taken a serious nosedive. Betty has gone from a likable character that viewers liked to root for to someone who is barely tolerated by a lot of viewers. The ratings are down, the quality is way down...they kinda deserve this.

I don't want it canceled because I still hope that they can turn it around, but I hope that this serves as a major warning bell for them, and they clean the show up and get it back up to the level of quality it was at before.

Doesn't Silvio have a 4-season contract with ABC? Granted, that probably doesn't mean much if the ratings are crap, but UB was still pretty much holding its own for its timeslot :P

Yeah, I hope this comes as a loud n' clear message to Silvio that he can't just plug his fingers in his ears and go, "LalalaLA, I can't hear you, I'm going to tell the stories I wanna tell and screw everyone else" and ignore the viewers when they're trying to tell him that, hey, while some things work just fine, some things don't, and people are tuning out for a reason. We're trying to help save your show, here, dude.

That being said, I don't think this is necessarily a death toll for the show. Season 4 will probably be its last, but I'd be extremely shocked if ABC didn't give their once golden-child comedy a farewell season...

UB needs a different timeslot, badly. It's ratings are now about half of what they were in the first season, and continue to fall. The series need an injection to get it going again. I doubt ABC is going to cancel the show since it's a season away from syndication and the network had holes everywhere, but maybe the show will get a better timeslot out of the deal?

I don't understand. Last week, they showed a preview for a new episode of Ugly Betty. You mean I have to wait until June to find out if Betty stays in the city for hot loving or moves back to Queens to serve as nurse for a man that does not need one? Boo to ABC!

C0mputerGeek, UB will continue to air on Thursdays until March 19. So, there's at least that. I like Samantha Who? a lot, and recently have enjoyed it a lot more than UB...but I want to have my cake and eat it, too. ETA: Ugh, ok, I get it completely now. I remembered originally they were going to start airing Samantha episodes again either this week or next week on Mondays. Now I find it won't be on until March? Argh.

Does anyone know how many episodes have already been shot? Maybe they are taking a break to fix the damn show, or they could be behind schedule in shooting the next few and need the time. I wouldn't blame ABC if they are in fact putting the show out to pasture but, until we know what's going on, I'm just waiting to see what the plan is.

Where are people getting the June date? By my calculations, Ugly Betty will be back for May sweeps. It will just end in June which is past when the normal television season finishes.

While the being taken off the air is not an encouraging sign, the fact that the show is still scheduled to air during both Feb and May sweeps is encouraging.

SW 8 has episodes left and ITM has 13 episodes. So, if you air SW all out, you run until the end of May sweeps, then back-to-back episodes of ITM would last until mid-June.

Granted, they could bomb.

I'm so mad at ABC. I still really like Ugly Betty and I don't like when networks screw over shows I like. Taking a show off the air for a month or two is generally a bad thing. People tend to forget about it by the time it comes back on. I like Samantha Who? but I'm not liking S2 nearly as much as S1, and if it came down to it, I'd choose UB over Samantha any day of the week.

I don't know how many episodes are left, but they are still filming (a fansite posted videos of AF shooting a scene, dated 21 Jan). I'm trying to figure out how much time there is between filming and airing.

This doesn't sound good at all.

Granted that the show wasn't at it's best, but seriously it does not warrant this kind of treatment. ABC has already canceled 3 shows and shorten the orders for the newer ones, I seriously wonder why they want to delay the airings of this show. (And yes, Samantha Who? is also being screwed for a 2 month hiatus)

On another note, I wonder what are they airing to replace all the extra time from taking shows off their schedules.

Ugh, they have already canceled Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone, if they are attempting to force Ugly Betty to take the axe, the devil inside me wishes ABC to be out of business.

Well this is depressing news. I knew UB's ratings weren't as good as last season's but I didn't think i should be worried.

Here's a slightly more optimistic article with a statement from an ABC spokesperson. For what that's worth, although I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Although, they might try actually promoting the show that's such a "large part of ABC's identity." I think they rested on their laurels as far as thinking the show had enough interantional/award-winning buzz, which is definitely not the case.

Not to be the voice of gloom and doom, but Ugly Betty fans should indeed worry.

Returning the show in June, outside the regular season, is a serious demonstration of non-support. This is the fore-runner of cancellation.

This move has shocked me. I didn't realize the ratings had gone down so much. And secondly, I'm kinda shocked ABC is so quick to give up on a previous hit. I'm surprised they didn't just move it to a less competitive night than Thursday.

Hmm...seems to me that this is ABC's way of telling the viewers that they should appreciate what they have before it's gone. Maybe they're taking this drastic action to get the attention of the viewers who've lost interest, make them go, "WHAT??" and give them no option but to watch in June (when, first off, there's nothing else on, and, secondly, they'll be so happy to have the show back).

What I'm curious about is what prompted this. Do you think that the writers may be changing the direction of the plotlines? Do you think all the pending leaving/death rumors and/or Ana Ortiz's widely publicized pregnancy have ANYTHING to do with this? Seems coincidental to me that one week there's a buzz going around about people leaving the show, the next week everyone's wondering how they're gonna go through Ana Ortiz's pregnancy without Hilda getting pregnant, and, two weeks later, there's randomly a break. Maybe circumstances went against plots originally planned and the writing team needs to start from the drawing board.

*Sigh*. I jinxed myself. Here I was saying, "WOO HOO!! No strike this season!! We'll actually get EPISODES!!"

I'd rather have a 2 month uninterrupted run than pulses of four shows 3 months apart. But maybe that's me??

It did strike me as 2 months off is a perfect opportunity to retool the show....

Ortiz's pregnancy is no big deal. Julia Louis Dreyfess was preggers at the height of Seinfeld craze, and they had no problem shooting around it.

They could probably put Hilda behind salon chairs or something like that.

I wonder if we'll hear from the creator about this. Although I hope he doesn't insult the viewers like Tim Kring.

Fresh scoop from Michael Ausiello at EW:

I hope that's true.

By any measure it's not good to shelve it for sweeps, because that means ABC doesn't see it as revenue producing vs. the sitcoms it will feature instead. I can't imagine ABC making that move in Season 1.

I was reading a lot of complaints about ABC on Ausiello's column commen section. I do agree the network fixes what isn't broken, has no idea how to tweak a show to improve it, and overall has absolute crap for taste - as if turning a smart, funny, SWEET, clever program into a crude, cudgel wielding cartoon (Ugly Betty) isn't evidence.

I'd love to think that while Betty is shelved they make writing changes and some production team changes (such as costumes) but my hopes aren't high.

I don't think they will because I don't think the fact that ABC is delaying when the episodes will be aired will have any effect on their production schedule. They'll have the episodes in the can and then they'll just sit on the shelf until ABC is ready to air them.

I of course totally agree, this is bad news, as I wrote earlier in this thread. And ABC has every reason in the world to spin it another way, since if the show is perceived as being on it's last legs, surely fewer people will watch.

ABC does seem to especially inept in nurturing a good show. They've had a whole lot of out of the box hits in the last 5 years that they've squandered.

The show returns a week early, April 30th.

And we got renewed for another season!

ABC's Fall Schedule, Ugly Betty is returning on Fridays at 9pm

That works better for me - no pile up between Survivor & NBC comedies. Also, the low ratings don't matter as much Friday nights. Good move, ABC.

Nooooooooooo...!

Ugh, ABC should treat the show better.

True, but it depends just *how* low the ratings go. All in all, I can't see the show getting a S5, but here's hoping I'm wrong. At least we got a S4, it was looking a bit iffy there for a while.

You know what used to be on Fridays at 9? Dallas, the #1 show on TV. I realize that was generations ago in TV time, but it's even easier to catch shows now regardless of their time slots. I'm choosing to view this as a positive.