Ugly Betty fans are pretty peeved.
ABC’s announcement this morning that it’s banishing moving the once-mighty comedy to Fridays next season to make room for its buzzy new drama Flash Forward on Thursdays at 8 p.m. has elicited a chorus of “WTFs?!” from the show’s rabid followers. But Alphabet president Stephen McPherson insists shifting the show to the TV graveyard known as Friday should not be interpreted as a sign Betty is on her last legs.
“I love the show [and] America [Ferrera] is one of our biggest stars,” says McPherson. “[But] you look at [Betty's declining ratings on] Thursday night and we think we have a big opportunity with Flash Forward. You have to make some bold moves sometimes. To me, I’d love to see [Betty] have a great run on Friday night the way Ghost Whisperer has [for CBS].”
In other ABC scheduling news, McPherson confirmed the demise of Cupid, The Unusuals, According to Jim, Samantha Who?, and In the Motherhood. To track the status of all your favorite bubble shows, bookmark my Fall TV Cheat Sheet. To see ABC’s complete fall schedule, head to the Hollywood Insider blog. And for up-to-the-minute renewal-cancellation-pickup scuttlebutt throughout
upfront week, stay close to both my blog (the one you’re reading now!)
and Twitter feed.
More TV Scoop:
ABC cancels Samantha Who?
Katherine Heigl gunning for another Emmy
Lost’s Juliet mystery solved?
ABC renews Castle, Better Off Ted
Burning Prison Break finale Qs answered
Fox renews Dollhouse
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It’s going up against Dollhouse.
Good thing I haven’t watched Ugly Betty since the middle of the second season. That show has gone down the tube creativity wise. Started out sooo amazing, first season was the best.
Michael, I respect your reporting, but you can’t fault ABC for moving UB to Friday and I love the show. It’s been 4th in its timeslot even finishing behind KATH and KIM when it was on, even though GA follows it. I feel like you are just trying to rile up its fans. This is a DVR world, people can watch it whenever they want. If it gets close to the 2.0 it is averaging now, I am sure ABC will be happy to leave it there for a long time
unless YOU have absolutely nothing to do on a friday night or crippled,bed-ridden,WTF????? moving it to friday night IS DEFINATELY GONNA KILL THE SHOW..stephen mcperson YOU ARE A BLOODY LIAR!!!!
Thank you ABC. As a devoted Betty fan, i’m sad. U can be sure that this will be Betty’s last season now. Friday is the worst day of the week, televionwise.
Never watched Ugly Betty and won’t watch the new show they are putting in its time slot. I’m already booked, Bones and Survivor are on during that time. Don’t have room to add a third show. Sorry ABC, you suck! If it weren’t for Castle I’d never watch another new show you put out, especially after what you did to Pushing Daisies.
So they’ve banished UB to Friday’s and are likely going to pit it against Chuck or Dollhouse — are they trying to kill all these shows at once?
We tape it and watch it on Friday anyway. Guess it works out for us.
Death knell.
But, on the bright side – since they’re moving it to 9:00 on a friday, can Marc get a boyfriend he can actually kiss? Honestly.
This doesn’t bother me. I DVR too many things on Thursday night as it is so I actually like that some of the shows I like are moving to Friday – I only tape/watch The Soup that night.
And with DVR, it really doesn’t matter which night a show is on, as long as I can record it!
I wasn’t terribly upset about the move to Friday until I discovered its 9pm and against Dollhouse!! Good thing my cable box dvr can record 2 shows at once. Sucks that they are going to have to fight for ratings though
.
The move is pretty convinient for me because the time always clashed with smallville, so I’d have to choose which one to watch live…it is worrying though. I hope it doesn’t kill the ratings.
Ghost Whisperer, Dollhouse, Betty, Flashpoint… who said Friday Nights were dead!
http://tvdonewright.com/2009-2010-season-preview/
ABC is REALLY ticking me off this year. First they cancel Pushing Daisies, then Samantha Who, and now they are banishing Ugly Betty to Fridays. And yet they renew Scrubs which was very uneven this year and will not be the same without Zach Braff (even in a limited capacity). WTH?!?!?!
Good riddance. This show has not been good since its breakout first season.
Stupid rationalization. Ghost Whisperer has had it’s entire run on Fridays and has been able to build up a base. Kicking Ugly Betty to Friday means that you’ve lost faith but isn’t ready to kick it to the curb yet. I would pick Ghost Whisperer that is known than a show that was kicked from Thursday to Friday. Did “Bones” really dent the ratings so much with it’s move to Thursdays. Maybe they are trying to get it out Fox’s way…
Poor Ugly Betty. This is my favorite show on television. It still makes me bust a gut laughing. Christine Baranski showing a Betty a slide of her mushroom cap on her painting nearly killed me. I am not giving up on it even if it is moving to Friday, but really, this should should have anchored a Tuesday or Wednesday.
As an Ugly Betty fan, I am glad it’s going to Fridays. It will be sandwiched between the solid Supernanny and 20/20, and face less intense competition than earlier in the week. It also has family-friendly elements that could work perfectly for a Friday night.
ABC has no chance with “Flash Forward” on any night. The past 5 TV seasons have proven that network viewing audiences (or at least the networks) cannot cope with near future or apocalyptic themed television programs. The Trail of Broken TV Dreams is now littered with cancelled programs of that genre: “Jericho”, “Day Break”, “Kings”, “Journeyman”, “Life on Mars” to name just a few.
Prediction: When “Flash Forward” tanks – “Betty” will be brought back from exile to fill its rightful Thursday spot – unless some programming genius retools a 40 year old game show instead.
I could care less about their new fall schedule since I won’t be watching. I’m done with ABC. I keep getting tricked into watching great new shows, only to have ABC give up on them. No more ABC for me!
Oh man, they’re trying to kill it! I hate ABC, except for Lost.
They’ll have Bob Sagett host a new Truth or Consequences or Press Your Luck(No Whammies!)
Why did they have to put Betty at 8pm? Friday Night Lights will probably be there at 8pm and is the better show.
Well I guess that’s that for Betty. Ratings are down? Hmmm, I guess that’s what happens when you pull the show off the air for 2+ months in the middle of the season. Sigh. Will TV executives *EVER* learn???
On an unrelated note — According to Jim has been cancelled?!?!?! Surely this is a sign of the apocalypse. 10 years of drivel finally comes to an end. I shutter at the thought of what kind of garbage they plan on replacing it with.
If ABC would stop taking weird hiatuses in the middle of seasons they wouldn’t lose viewers. Who can ever tell when a show is going to continue on when they throw in 8 weeks of reruns in the middle of a season of new episodes. Friday will kill ugly betty. I refuse to pay for DVR and am never home watching tv on friday nights. In fact no one I know is.
People- JUST get a DVR. RECORD it and watch it at your convenence. WHY complain!
http://blog.entertainmenttodayandbeyond.com/
chuck
I loved Ugly Betty when it first started and season 2 was quite watchable as well. As for season 3, I’m so sad that the writers have run out of ideas and feel that the only way to portray Betty is by turning her into a sappy pushover. PLEASE breathe some new life in the show. THERE IS HOPE.
Oh, and thank God that According to Jim was canceled. Two morbidly obese losers hanging out with those comparatively anorexic women is far from a formula for funny.
according to jim is just now getting cancelled?! how did that show stay on for so long?
I have not watched the show in over two years-got UNBEARABLE. The poor cast, this should have been modeled after the spanish version and just been a 36 episode over three year thing with the proper story archs.
I wish they put Ugly betty on Tuesday or Wed. It’s the beginning of the end for the show, but if it keeps it’s 7 million viewers who knows. It’ just Fridays is where shows go to die and NBC stupidly put Southland on Fridays at 9 as well. Oh well. Can’t fault ABC, it’s ratings are declining and they are sure to decline more on Fridays — funny because that’s where is was originally scheduled when it first premiered but was moved to Thursdays. If flash forward fails, it may make a return to Thursdays — just like in the motherhood and samantha who failed — they returned ugly betty a week early. 2 HOUR SEASON FINALE THIS THURSDAY!
I love UGLY BETTY and have no problem with the move to Fridays – it might even turn out to be a GOOD thing! It wasn’t that long ago that ABC dominated Friday nights with its family-friendly TGIF lineup – and I’m also old enough to remember when there were interesting shows (instead of repeats) on Saturday nights! WHY does every show have to air on Thursday?! There are seven nights in the week but the networks only seem to program Sunday through Thursday.
If i remember correctly,UB was originally slated as a Friday night show in the first place. But,yeah,i’m gonna miss it on Thursday nights.
It just frees up another night away from regular network tv.
ABC REALLY NEEDS A GOOD A** WHOOPING AND A SLAP UPSIDE THE HEAD! I can not BELIEVE they are moving UB to Fridays (the dead zone)of television. Oh wait, Saturday night is dead. Sure, they “love” this show blah blah blah. They literally put a nail in the coffin of my beloved show. Not many people watch live television on Friday night. I DVR and sorry but I do not belong to the Nielson Family. UGH! I want to SCREAM! They cancel Pushing Daisies and didn’t even get a chance to find back its audience. Samantha Who? is gone. Sure lets populate the airwaves with Reality Shows?? What the (fill in the blank)