originally Ugly Betty was set to premiere on 10/9. Now its two hour premiere has been pushed until 10/16. I’m checking to see if ABC’s plan is to go with another Friday of encores of new series on 10/9.
Update: October 3: Flash Forward, Modern Family and The Middle will air between 8p-10p on 10/9.
Update: as of 11:00AM PT on October 2 ABC says nothing has been slotted for 10/9 between 8p-10p yet, so the plans for that night are still TBA.
Via ABC press release:
SEASON PREMIERE
“UGLY BETTY” KICKS OFF ITS FOURTH SEASON WITH TRANSFORMATIONS GALORE
AND A NEW LOOK FOR BETTY IN A TWO-HOUR PREMIERE, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16 ON ABC
Kristen Johnston, Lynn Redgrave, Judy Gold, Smith Cho and Yaya DaCosta Guest Star
“Ugly Betty” returns for a fourth season with a two-hour season premiere, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.
Note: This program was originally scheduled to air on Oct. 9.
In the first hour, “The Butterfly Effect” Part 1 (8:00-9:00 p.m.), Betty finds that everything is changing as she begins her new job as associate features editor, especially since her boss is her ex-boyfriend, Matt Hartley, who is still unhappy about their breakup. In addition, Betty’s new officemate, Megan (Smith Cho), openly resents her, while Marc is constantly undermining her because he felt he was more deserving of the promotion. Meanwhile, without Betty as his assistant, Daniel is adrift, still mourning the loss of his wife, Molly. Betty tries to help Megan out on an assignment and connects with a thoughtful insect jewelry designer, Olivia (Lynn Redgrave), while Justin starts high school and is victimized by bullies—but won’t tell his mom, Hilda. Claire Meade is finding that her power struggle at the company has her sitting pretty – for the moment — opposite Wilhemina, who lost her claim to the Meade throne last season. But Wili has perhaps an even bigger problem than job security — she is harboring a secret at home that is driving Marc to distraction.
In “The Butterfly Effect,” Part 2 (9:00-10:00 p.m.), Betty gets to run her own Mode photo shoot at the United Nations to promote their anti-malaria initiative, “Nothing but Nets,” but her big opportunity becomes a baptism by fire when Daniel’s neediness takes its toll, and Matt openly demoralizes her. Meanwhile, Amanda does some soul-searching when she bonds with Daniel’s new temp, Helen (Kristen Johnston), a career receptionist as fabulous as Amanda is. Wili makes it her personal mission to protect a loved one, and Hilda reaches out to Marc to figure out how to help Justin.
“Ugly Betty” stars America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, Eric Mabius as Daniel Meade, Tony Plana as Ignacio, Ana Ortiz as Hilda, Judith Light as Claire Meade, Becki Newton as Amanda, Michael Urie as Marc, Mark Indelicato as Justin, Daniel Eric Gold as Matt Hartley and Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater.
Guest-starring in “The Butterfly Effect,” Part 1 are Lynn Redgrave as Olivia, David Rasche as Calvin Hartley, Smith Cho as Megan, Yaya DaCosta as Nico Slater, Alec Mapa as Suzuki St. Pierre, Ralph Macchio as Archie Rodriguez and Judy Gold as Joan. This episode was written by Henry Alonso Myers and Sheila Lawrence, and directed by John Terlesky.
Guest starring in “The Butterfly Effect,” Part 2 are Kristen Johnston as Helen, Smith Cho as Megan, Yaya DaCosta as Nico Slater, Piter Marek as Oscar Castelar, Rob Bartlett as Security Guard and Matte Osian as Dmitri. This episode was written by Henry Alonso Myers and Sheila Lawrence, and directed by Victor Nelli, Jr.
“Ugly Betty’s” executive producers are Silvio Horta (“Urban Legend”), Academy Award-nominee and Emmy Award winner Salma Hayek, Jose Tamez, Richard Heus, Victor Nelli Jr., Jon Kinnally, Tracy Poust, Henry Alonso Myers and Sheila Lawrence. Co-executive producers are Chris Black, Gail Lerner and Abraham Higgenbotham.
”Ugly Betty” is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC’s selected HDTV format, with 5.1-channel surround sound and Spanish subtitles via secondary closed captioning. This program carries a TV-PG,L parental guideline.
For more information on “Ugly Betty,” visit ABC.com.
maybe more Flashforward repeats and give Hank/Middle some exposure.
I think you may be right cool, but I feel that Hank/Middle would be a waste of airtime. They’d be better off running Eastwick, or Cougar Town, and Modern Family.
why are they pushing the premiere of Ugly Betty back a week? I’ve been waiting forever for Ugly Betty to return and now i have to wait even longer. sad
So, in a much smaller item, this means Supernanny’s premiere is either bumped early or later.
I don’t like this move. Is there competition that night they weren’t aware of? Something big on cable maybe? Why make Ugly Betty fans wait even longer after we were already expecting it in another week?
I think they will air FlashForward. no brainer like they already did. with the middle and another comedy. not hank.
Ummmm…. WHY? We’ve already waited longer than most of the other returning shows to get new episodes! This completely sucks. Also, ABC hasn’t done much of anything to promote the premiere. I usually see something during Greys or Private Practice, but nothing.
According to sitcomsonline.com, Supernany has been pushed to October 23, so yes.. they will show repeats next week also.
Is CBS running repeats on that date? I know the season is early but they could be and if Ghost Whisperer and Medium were in repeats it would give Betty a better chance.
I suspect that they decided the 2 parts needed to be shown in one night for a strong season opener. Due to holiday themed episodes that needed to be shown on specific dates, they started the season a week later so all the other episodes would air on the expected dates.
Hm, very interesting.
I’m expecting Ugly Betty (and Southland) to take a serious hit after being moved to Fridays, but it’s still surprising to see that ABC would prefer to air reruns (presumably that’s the reason for the delay).
Not sure, but maybe there is(are) big plot point(s) that ABC wants aired during November sweeps. Moving the show a week later allows that to happen and still air consecutive episodes.
How did Ulgy Betty go from Thursday the best night of the week to Friday the worst day?
Phil, this is how: last year, Ugly Betty had a 2.4/7 adults 18-49 rating on Thursday October 2, 2008 at 8pm. Last night, Flash Forward had a 3.7 adults 18-49 rating.
Ugly Betty is still around for syndication and will be gone after this year. Theres a slight chance ABC could give it a final 13 episode order to boost the syndication past 100. The ratings did badly last year (On par with My Name is Earl & Kath), so ABC moved it to fridays and now Flashforward is doing better.
I’m worried for UGLY BETTY, I hope they pull a surprise in the ratings or if not I hope the producers would prepare a proper closure
What Dan reiterated was exactly what someone else had previously said in the comments section on this website, Ugly Betty is doomed.
A., if by doomed you mean likely to finish out this season’s broadcast order on ABC and then go into syndication, I agree. Although, I think it’s very unlikely it gets pulled from the schedule early, no matter what its ratings are.
Go to abc.com (under contact us section) and put a complaint about delaying the show’s premier. When they see so many fans complainting they’ll know that fans DO care about the show and yet they don’t care about us.
They have yet to announce anything to fill the two hours spot? hmmm…
Maybe they are anticipating other President prime time hour. It has been a few weeks now since the last.
So what are exactly the reasons behind Betty moving a week back? And does anybody have any predictions of how Betty would do being on a Friday night?
I’m a bit worried, being a loyal Betty fan for the past 3 seasons I probably should be worried but I’ll remain optimistic..for now.
“Flash Forward,” “Modern Family,” and “The Middle” repeats will air next week.
http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?fromTimeInMillis=1255129200000
J.R. Herbaugh, good find. Interestingly, as I write this abc.com has yet to change it’s schedule from the Ugly Betty premiere.
ALMOST EVERY BODY AROUND THE WORLD ARE SEEN LATIN TELENOVELAS
LIKE UGLY BETY , I’M SURPRISE THAT THE US IT’S NEW AT IT , MANY TELENOVELAS OUT THERE ARE MUCH BETTER EVEN THAN THE SOPRANOS
THE LAST ONE A WATCH WAS A BRAZILIAN CALL LA ESCLAVA ISAURA
THAT WAS REALLY GOOD !!!
It seems they did that to give a bit more exposure to Modern Family and The Middle. It seems ABC wants these family shows to succeed. Modern will get a full year no doubt, as will Cougar, and hopefully The Middle, but Hank is on its way out soon.
So disappointing to hear that the show has been pushed back a week. Ugly Betty is a GREAT show, for those of you that don’t watch it yet I urge you to watch the premiere–you will be hooked
This show is clever, witty, and always down to earth. A gem surrounded by junk shows.