Ugly Betty


Ugly Betty is a Golden Globe and Peabody Award winning American television dramedy series starring America Ferrera, Vanessa Williams, and Eric Mabius. It premiered on September 28, 2006, on ABC in the United States. The series follows the life of Betty Suarez (Ferrera), and her job at popular fashion magazine Mode. The series is based on the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea ("I am Betty, the ugly"),[1] also simply known as "Betty la fea" (literally "Betty the Ugly") written by Fernando Gaitán (also author of Café, con aroma de mujer). It is adapted into a New York City setting by creator/developer Silvio Horta and co-producers Salma Hayek and Ben Silverman, whose production companies Silent H, Ventanarosa and Reveille respectively partnered with ABC Television Studio (formerly Touchstone Television) to create the hour-long program for American audiences. Hayek appears on the show as Sofia Reyes, in addition to playing a cameo role as an actress on a fictional telenovela watched by the main character's family in early episodes.

Of all the adaptations of Betty La Fea, the original Colombian telenovela, Ugly Betty is probably the most different, but it remains true to the original in spirit. It is similar to another ABC dramedy series, Desperate Housewives, in that it combines elements of drama, comedy, mystery, farce, camp, soap opera, and satire, though in a lighter way. The show is filmed like a traditional network drama (with motion picture film), rather than the videotape production of the original series.

Recurring

Notes

Production timeline

Competition with other "Betty" offshoots

Although Buena Vista Television has sold the series to foreign territories, the English-language version is expected to compete with the in-house versions in several of the locations.[9]

As noted by the international broadcast table posted above, several of these broadcasters have not only acquired this version, but the counterparts as well, including those that were produced by the broadcasters themselves. So far the series has been sold to TV networks and broadcasters in over 130 countries, making this version the most successful of the "Betty La Fea" franchise [10]

In the U.S., Univision currently airs the Mexican counterpart La fea más bella, which airs weeknights at 8PM (E/P), including Thursdays during the same time Ugly Betty airs. The star of the Mexican version, Angelica Vale, was supposed to make a cameo in the 22nd episode, playing Betty's "counterpart" from the series, Leticia 'Lety' Padilla Solís [11], but the story turned out to be false. Vale appeared in the season finale playing Angelica, an orthodontist's assistant who looks exactly like Lety (pre-makeover).

Ratings

In the following summary, "Rating" is the estimated percentage of all televisions tuned to the show, and "Share" is the percentage of all televisions in use that are tuned in.

"Viewers" is the estimated number of actual people watching, in millions, while "ranking" is the approximate ranking of the show against all prime-time TV shows for the week (Sunday to Saturday).

Seasonal

USA TV Ratings

Based on average total viewers per episode of Ugly Betty on ABC:

In popular culture

Reviews

See also

External links

Citations