I noticed a couple of obviously looped-in dialogue bits in FSR, I can't recall exactly what they were now but I wonder if some of it was to patch this up.

How bizarre.

The out of order episodes on a serialized show is ridiculous! I wonder how this is going to effect the season since it looks like this will continue for several episodes. Hopefully they at least do reshoots to prevent us from being totally confused.

One thing I remember was in Fey's Sleigh Ride when Daniel repeated that line to Betty twice. I guess with trying to fix everything they get confused. Now I'm confused. I wonder if the DVD will show them in order.

Isn't that what killed Firefly? I hope this won't effect UB the same way.

Indeed. And now I'm sad that we didn't get to see FSL as it was meant to be seen--I mean, I thought the version we saw was pretty awesome, but I'd like to see it as the writers intended it, as part of an arc, with the dialogue intact.

What the heck could ABC's reasoning for this be? Ugh.

I had my suspicions. That's why the arc with Sofia is airing earlier and itmight explain why Betty's felt guilty dating another guy than Walter.

That seems bizarre... I really wouldn't have cared if I saw the Halloween episode this week a whole two days after the holiday.

What killed Firefly was viewer apathy to a genre that rarely thrives on TV.

And the fact that it was a terrible show that nobody watched.

[/insert neck roll] Oh no you didn't! As one of those people who loved Firefly, I will respectfully disagree and say it was a great show that was unfortunate enough to get scheduled in the wasteland that is Friday night.

But back to Betty...



From what I've read, I think only one episode will have aired out of order and that's the 4th one, entitled "Swag", which according to an interview with Vanessa Williams will air as the 11th episode.

Let's leave Firefly out of it, since I have no wish for fisticuffs in these lovely forums.

I've heard that "Swag" is being retooled. I believe the only episode that really needed reshoots to accomodate that change was the last one, so I suspect we're okay.

Hmmm... that's really, really interesting to know! Was there any official explanation given for why they redid the episode? I mean, I assume that's yanking an episode out of continuity in a dramady is not something that's done casually...

I didn't get the official explanation -- I think it just needed some extra work.

I'm really glad that this show is doing so well in ratings.

Too many times have I started watching tv shows that I had to wave goodbye to early because of ratings, ala Roswell, Popular, Veronica Mars (oh it'll happen sooner or later).

I'm a little concerned that the show is not breaking out of the 13 million-or-so viewship level. It's enough to keep it safe, of course, but really spreading the show out of its clear core is something that really needs doing...it should be getting ratings at the "Will and Grace" level, at least. Just saying.

I disagree with the ratings. I think the 13 million is a good starting point. With Desperate Housewives and LOST they started so high that there was nowhere to go but down. Both have lost well over 5 million between seasons. A show like Grey's Anatomy has slowly built over each season so there is someplace to go. If ABC stays behind the show, I think the ratings could rise in future seasons.

Maybe they could find something compatible to air it after for a special test episode. Like Grey's did with the Superbowl. Unfortunately this show is too gay friendly for that to work.

I think it's good too, especially considering its competition. I thought it was performing better than ABC had expected and it's the number one new show.

It also has the potential to grow. I fully expect it to get some recognition from awards shows. Right now it's also in direct competition with the La Fea Mas Bella, which is the Mexican version of Ugly Betty airing on Univision. By this time next year, LFMB will be over and UB has the potential of picking up some of that audience.

I felt pretty optimistic when UB beat out Surviver two weeks in a row.

Betty still doing business:

Beginning with 8 p.m., the little ABC show that could, Ugly Betty, remained on the winning track with a first-place 10.1 rating/15 share in the overnights. Comparatively, that was 10 percent above CBS’ deadly-dull Survivor: Cook Islands (9.2/14), which remains stifled by the lack of notable contestants. Survivor: Guatemela on the year-ago evening (Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005) averaged a healthier 10.9/16, while the first hour of theatrical The Pirates of the Caribbean on ABC was at a 6.2/ 9. Once the fast nationals are released, however, expect Survivor: Cook Islands to rule in both total viewers and adults 18-49.

Here are the fast nationals for last night from futoncritic.com. Not too shabby for an underdog.

I got spoiled last week watching UB on regular TV thanks to other shows being reruns. What's worse is for the first time abc.com let me down today. I eventually got to see the show, but I had to re-start it several times and it froze a few times as well. Maybe there's more traffic on the site Sat afternoons rather than Fri mornings, when I've watched it in the past.

That happened to me last night. I guess tos of people missed it Thursday night.

ABC's spin of the 11/2 show:

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20061103abc02

Ugly Betty (8:00-9:00 p.m.)

ABCs Ugly Betty took second place during the opening hour on Thursday in Total Viewers (13.7 million) and Adults 18-49 (4.4/11), topping NBCs comedies in the time period on both measures (My Name is Earl/The Office = 9.2 million & 4.2/11). For its 6th straight telecast (on each of the series airings), ABCs Betty won its time period among Women 18-34, pacing 11% ahead of second-place CBS Survivor (5.2/14 vs. 4.7/13).

Ugly Betty was up 5% in Total Viewers and 5% among Adults 18-49 from the prior week (13.1 million & 4.2/12 on 10/26/06). The new ABC series posted its strongest Women 18-49 rating (6.3/15) in 4 weeks since 10/5/06.

Betty boosted ABCs results in the hour over the same night last year by 5.3 million viewers and by 76% in Adults 18-49 (11/3/05 = 8.4 million & 2.5/7). On average this season, Ugly Betty has improved the time slot for the Network by 91% in Total Viewers (14.1 million vs. 7.4 million) and by 88% in Adults 18-49 (4.5/12 vs. 2.4/7) from the same nights last year.

---Sounds good to me!

Ugly Betty is the highest rated new show, but that's not saying much. The ratings seem onpar with ABC of yesteryear with shows like George Lopez Show and My Wife and Kids, but none could be described as breakthrough hits the following season. I think Ugly Betty has nowhere to go but down. It's the first season and it ratings seem to be stuck at around 13 million. There's no real competition for Ugly Betty. Thursdays at 8pm are just not the same anymore. Grey Anatomy is up against competition and still the two shows airing at that time manage over 20 million viewers.

The fact that it's gaining viewers (unlike almost every other new show out there except the mildly overhyped Heroes) would seem to belie this.

This also seems pretty significant:



I'm also not sure of your point about 8pm timeslot versus the 9pm timeslot, but with stuff like NBC supposedly moving away from scripted dramas in the 8pm slot, if nothing else this seems like good counterprogramming versus reality dreck.

Survivor still draws people, who might at least check out UB when the final is done.

Survivor is old, but not out and the NBC comedies probably get the same audience as Betty. I still think that once award seasons and the new season roll around, the ratings will improve.

Considering that they're not losing viewers, and it's doing better than any of otheir other new shows, I can't imagine ABC is unhappy with the numbers.

With so much flexibility in watching just network TV these days, how do they really determine the ratings? A lot of the major CBS shows are on Comcast's On Demand. ABC shows can be watched via abc.com. Yes, it matters to the advertisers. Still, it seems like we go letting GM (what's good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA) or Walmart, or ED pharmaceuticals decide which shows we are going to be able to watch.

I am one of those people who likes both My Name is Earl and Ugly Betty, so I Tivo both and watch when I can. I would guess that I am one of many. I think they are going to have to change the ratings system eventually to accomodate people like myself.

Someone mentioned that Lost had gone down in viewership - I don't think that's because they started out so high, I think it's because the show has lost it's way and some people just don't give a shit anymore*.

*and yes, that would be me.

I suspect ratings will never go above 13 million. There might be a slight surge after the best week ever, but by season 2 it'll draw even less viewers. The networks simply fell asleep at the wheel. Ugly Betty is like ABC's Commander-in-Chief: Here today and gone tomorrow.

But Commander-In-Chief had major creative problems and lost viewers every week. Ugly Betty gained viewers this week and creatively most agree that it is getting better. I don't see the connection between the two shows.

Give it a month or two on the ratings front.

I could see the idea that the ratings could drop with next season, but I seriously haven't seen any indication that they will drop considering they have been steady or higher each week. Especially with award season coming up and we know the show will be nominated for stuff. Creatively there have been no problems, buzz and promotion are there. Why do you think the show will be done in, ratings wise?

It has already been picked up for the entire season, right?

So why worry?

Great LA times Ugly Betty article:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...adlines-entnews

Ratings tidbits from the article:

The show is one of only a few unquestionable successes of the fall season thanks to its appeal to a multicultural, predominantly female audience. More than 14 million viewers, mostly women of diverse ethnic backgrounds and ages, have made "Ugly Betty" the No. 1 new show in total viewers.

Not only has the 8 p.m. comedy helped put ABC back on the all-important Thursday map without any help from a lead-in show, it also ranks among the top 20 shows with 18- to 49-year-olds, the demographic advertisers covet the most, and ranks as a top 20 show with viewers who earn $100,000 or more, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Still doing OK for ABC:

ABC’s Ugly Betty was down, but certainly not out, with a first-place 9.6/15 in the overnights from 8-9 p.m. CBS’ Survivor: Cook Islands, which is finally beginning to heat up, was second at an also below-average 9.0/14. When the fast nationals are released, however, expect Survivor to dominate in both total viewers and adults 18-49.

Fast nationals from the Futon Critic:

Am I the only person who has noticed that Soapnet repeats the Thursday Ugly Betty episode on Saturdays at 12 p.m. US Eastern time?

I can't believe my TV listings are showing UB and GA as airing new episodes on Thanksgiving.

I was checking out the listings for Thanksgiving earlier as well and I noticed that. Survivor is also new. I was really surprised. I was also pleased, though, because I really have nothing to do on Thanksgiving night.

Plus, UB's Thanksgiving ep is this week. I hate when shows do that. They air a holiday ep a week before the holiday even though they're airing a new ep on said holiday. Why not just air the holiday ep on the week of the holiday? It's a pet peeve of mine.

I remembered that Soapnet reran the pilot episodes a few times. I missed last week's episode (damn you VCR!) and went to the Soapnet site to see if they would repeat in on Saturday. According to their schedule, the were supposed to air it at noon and at midnight, but they showed something else instead.

Knots Landing, that's actually just my hope. I am eager for the show to tank in the ratings because I think the concept is a bad idea. It's repetitive in the way of Fat Actress --meaning that it has one premise that gets old. I understand that it's based on a "telenovela", which translates into a bad soap in English. I think the storylines will eventually get tiresome and the show will tank. I read more about the ratings than watch the show, which I've only tried to do about three times.

That's actually my main fear for this show. Despite all the positive articles, I feel there are still many people resisting the concept because they simply do not like the telenovela format and won't give it a chance. Of course, it's their right to do so, but this limits the amount of viewers Betty could ever conquer by a lot and ABC probably does not like that.

Although the show seems to truthfully have found its audience, I don't trust that the network executives will be quite pleased with its size and more limited scope.

I think the pilot is being rerun Friday on ABC.

Perhaps the ratings of this show will eventually tank-- despite the widespread interest in it, despite it being lauded as the most promising and most-watched new show of this fall, despite it being the only show on prime time currently that has a hispanic woman as a protagonist, which is reason enough to call it innovative and ground breaking. But regardless, I just find it completely off base to say that the show is doing poorly currently-- despite how eager people might be to see that happen.

While it is based on a telenovella (which aren't known for quality), I think they completely revamped the concept and improved upon it. The original show directly translated into English would be like those crappy novellas on MyNetworkTV.

Ugly Betty is well written and perfectly cast and has been from the beginning. I don't know that the telenovella format should put anyone off since they aren't using it. I still say that once the award shows recongnize the show (which better happen), the buzz from that will help increase the ratings.

Oops! I should have worded it better - my apologies. What I meant is not that it follows the telenovela format strictly. I really wanted to say that Betty's telenovela roots may be offputting for many people.

I do hope the positive buzz will boost its ratings. It would be a shame, in my opinion, to see this show get cancelled.

I would at least like another season.

I for one think a second season is a lock, a LOCK.

I see nothing to worry about. Almost all the new shows this fall have done abysmally and off the top of my head the only shows that can be seen as doing well are; Heroes, Jericho and Ugly Betty.

I didn't say it was doing poorly, but I do think the writing is poorly done. I did watch the FIRST episode and attempted to watch it again recently. I contributed to those high ratings. However, I don't like the show and do not think the ratings are impressive. I don't think the show will get canceled because ABC has a lot of other power house shows. Being the highest rated show of this season is not saying much because the news shows introduced by FOX have all tanked and the CW cannot even be considered competition at the time. No one is doing well, which is why the 13 million viewers looks good. It's not hard to look "high" when everyone else is down. Personally, I watch the show and think Ugly Betty should get a new job. I don't root for her. I am unsympathetic to the Betty character, which is sad I wanted to root for her. Unfortunately, no comment about the hispanic part because that has nothing to do with why one should view a show.

Actually, I disagree. I don't know if this is panning out, but I am sure that ABC is banking on the telenovela concept and the fact that this is a remake of a huge Spanish-language hit to bring in at least part of the United States's large Hispanic viewing base. I believe Salma Hayek said as much in several of her interviews at TCA.