ABC’s Ugly Betty premiered to a disappointing 5 million viewers in its new Friday time slot last week, Variety reports. While Betty has performed considerably better in previous years, reports suggest that some of the decline might be due to the scheduling shift, as Friday generally sees low levels of television watching.
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Comments (1-30) of 72 Add your comment
duh. I have a life. sorry Betty.
I guess that’s what ABC is looking for….a reason to cancel Betty. I think it was a great premiere…very funny, great one-liners, and very Betty. ABC should give it 1/8th of the promo time it gives to new shows like ‘Flash Forward’ and Betty might have a chance.
Betty should pull up roots and move to cable because ABC doesn’t appreciate what it has.
maybe they want to get rid of Betty for the “balloon boy” show – reality freak shows are much less expensive to produce than scripted shows
i agree. its almost blatant that ABC is trying a little to hard to come up with a reason to cancel the show, which is sad because the show is still good.
the third season as pretty bad, i thought, but i do love betty and was excited to watch this season’s premiere. it’s going to be a great season.
but i watched it on dvr. like everyone else who has a life.
ABC did give it the promo time for the last 3 years – it wasn’t cutting it on THursday. Other nets have canceled shows with Betty’s numbers – hell WITHOUT A TRACE had even higehr numbers and CBS cancelled it. Flash Forward has improved the time period for ABC. ABC is not looking for Betty to do gangbuster on Friday. But you can’t blame them for this. Blame all teh people who dont watch it.
marc must work for ABC.
no need trying to justify yourself. and the numbers for the show when it was on thursday nights weren’t bad, so if you feel like you need to cancel the show, the truth is always better than coming up with some lie like “the numbers weren’t that high”. ABC may think its ok to treat people like their stupid, but we can see through these types of lies.
Very sad. In overall production – everything from acting and writing to photography, scoring, wardrobe, sets and locations – Ugly Betty is one of the best shows on the air. (Really! Check it out.) With those ratings, they must be losing a bundle on each episode.
Everyone knows friday is the kiss of death in tv land , no one is home on friday unless you are one of those people that watch Ghost Whisperer!
DUH! ABC you are making complete boneheaded moves a lot lately.
Fridays generally see lower levels of television watching? Wow! Who knew?
I’m sad to hear that ugly betty is struggling. I thought the premier was amazing! I’ve been watching this show since the it started. I really enjoyed how they started to mature betty. They better not cancel it! They should take of one of the many redundant reality shows instead.
will be interesting to see how it did with DVRing etc, thats what I did and watched it last night, great show, why not give it a Tuesday or Wednesday, why Friday, the very people/viewers it wants will be out on a Friday, it’s too cool a show for Friday!
It’s back handed way of canceling it, pure and simple.
Its a terrible shame. Betty has so much life left in it, but they seem determined to get rid of it in any way possible.
The premiere felt to me like a series finale. Betty is successful. What’s the point of the show now? The Wilhemina storyline feels been-there-done-that and dragged the whole thing down. But I am VERY glad they’re finally giving Justin a storyline.
Whatevs- 5m is GOOD for Friday. And what about DVR/VOD???
I knkow-I DVR the Dollhouse and it doesn’t count in the ratings either
People that use DVR/VOD are not counted because the people using these tools are not watching the commercials. If you are not watching them, what company will want to advertise their products during a show? These shows cost money, and to recoup that money is through commercials. People are watching more TV now, than ever before, but not in traditional ways. This is pushing networks to cancel quality shows, and bring in cheaper shows.
Technology is great, but it is also costing people money.
As for not being home on Fridays, I thought people were hurting during this “recession?”
I really love ugly betty. but i dont understand why they changed it to Fridays. thats why it has lower ratings. I had to dvr it because im not home on fridays.
I tivo’d it and I’m still trying to finish watching it(I have kids who like me to pay attention to them). I do have to say that as far as season premiers go, this was one of their best ones. Some of it was meh, but for the most part I found myself really enjoying the show again after a while of being disappointed.
Screw ABC for moving the show. Throw it on tuesday. Tuesdays there is not one thing on network tv that I want to watch. If they cancel the show I’ll be really mad.
I agree!!!!! My room mate and I were talking about it. There isn’t anything on Tuesday night right now. It is up for the taking! We don’t TIVO anything Tuesday. However Mondays & Thursdays we tivo a million things.
“reports suggest that some of the decline might be due to the scheduling shift”
They need reports to tell them this? And I love the “might.” Who didn’t know this would tank on Friday nights when they announced it in May? I guess you get to check your brains in at the door when you run a network.
As soon as I read that ABC moved Betty to Friday nites… I knew the writing was on the wall. This will be Betty’s last season. It is a shame to, dialogue is so funny, but I usually buy the DVDs for each season. Friday nites are just not good TV nites. ABC killed it they knew what they were doing. The cast is great. Just a shame.
The show is still great, but of course no one watches it on Fridays. If ABC supported it, it would still have great ratings.
I think these numbers are good considering the timeslot and the fact that ABC didn’t give the show or its move much advertising. ABC dropped the ball bigtime and its a shame that the show may end becase ABC didn’t give it the support it deserves.
I didnt see one ad for the premiere. I lost interest anyway last season. Too bad
It was a great premiere- stronger than a lot of last season- ABC should not have moved it. But then this is the network who canceled “Samantha Who?”…
Yeah, I have talked to soooooooo many people who are pissed about Samantha Who getting canceled. That was one of my favorite shows as well. It would have been perfect to run Samantha Who & Ugly Betty back to back, along with Modern Family. Comedy Wednesdays.
How about the DVR rating numbers? I recorded UB I swear the executives at ABC are morons at times. They move UB to Fridays, cancel Pushing Daises YET According to Jim was on the air close for EIGHT Flippin Years? WTF
I am wondering the same thing. I DVR’d it as well and watched it Sunday afternoon. I used to watch Betty live. But not on a Friday night.
Betty had a double whammy: first i was moved to Friday nights, then the premiere, which was originally scheduled for October 9, was moved to October 16. Hopefully ABC will take all of that into consideration when looking at those numbers.
Betty is awesome yet ABC banished it to Friday nights – shame on you ABC! I hope the DVR numbers are up there!
It’s heartbreaking to see all the promotion and beneficial scheduling going to reality s–t while wonderful shows like Betty are thrown to the wolves. We should be talking about what a great season opener this was — I love the backbiting at the magazine and Betty’s new perspective as an editor. I also like the gradual makeover they’re doing on our lovely Betty. And Mark and Justin, what a nice relationship. I just hope Betty gets a full season in.
Seems like ABC did this to cancel it. THey should canel Eastwick and move Ugly Betty to that timeslot.
That would be a great idea! Eastwick is DOA anyway!
has always been incredibly overrated. I think a lot of viewers are figuring that out
I’m with those who had to DVR it – But still fully support the show. How perfect would Wednesday night “Comedy Night” on ABC be with The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town, Samantha Who & Ugly Betty? Only to dream….
I have to add my voice to the others who watched “alternatively”. I don’t even have a DVR. I taped the show–(yes, you can still do that)–and watched it the next morning. I guess that means my support isn’t even counted on the charts. When the networks wake up and realize that audience viewing habits have changed, we may be able to get some decent programs on TV. I loved the premiere but thought 2 hrs. was a bit long. I hope we get an entire season.
“Betty”’s dead and has been for awhile now. It used to be one of my favorite shoes and America Ferrera is one of my favorite actresses. But it killed me to tune in every week to watch Betty sink in a world of narcisstic a-holes who would send her on a wild goose chase and merely pat her on the head 60 minutes later. It got predictable and I couldn’t watch one of my favorite characters drown in that rut of hers.
Ugly betty is still HILLARIOUS, juicy, witty, and relevant. It would be easy to assume it has gone down the drain, but it has NOT. The writing and cast continue to be excellent! Bravo! oooooo maybe the show could be picked up by Bravo, or showtime if it gets canceled. OR maybe FOX would pick it up and run it after GLEE, since it’s the same core audience. I DVR’d it, and the premiere was FAMAZING!!!!!
ABC should have just left it where it was on Thurs.