'In the Motherhood' and 'Samantha Who?' get a tryout in the 'Ugly Betty' hour
ABC will yank “Ugly Betty” from its Thursday slot to make way for a new comedy block.
Starting March 26, the new comedy “In the Motherhood” will kick off the network’s Thursday prime-time lineup, followed by “Samantha Who?” with Christina Applegate. Now in its third season, “Ugly Betty” stars America Ferrera as a plain-looking young woman who works at an upscale New York fashion magazine.
“Ugly Betty” started with promise but has lately stumbled in the ratings. The 8 p.m. Thursday time slot is critical for ABC because it leads in to “Grey’s Anatomy,” one of the network’s top-rated series.
ABC said “Ugly Betty” would return to its previous schedule once the comedies have finished their runs, but did not specify a date.
In addition, the network announced that starting March 18, “Scrubs” will move to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, followed by the new comedy “Better Off Ted.” This winter that slot has been occupied by repeats of the thriller “Lost.”
-- Scott Collins
Thank you ABC. First you cancel Pushing Daisies and Dirty, Sexy, Money. Now, the only other show that I liked on your network is going on hiatus. You've just given more reason to watch movies on my Roku.
Posted by: Valerie | January 26, 2009 at 08:35 PM
Get rid of this production. Tried it once (Ugly Betty) and they were desperate to acheive a dramatic award of some sort that night. Pleeeze. Stick with comedy, if you can. Guess you can't. Sorry New York...
Posted by: milquetoast | January 26, 2009 at 08:56 PM
ABC enjoys killing good shows. First, Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money, now Ugly Betty. Viewers are flocking to cable for quality television that doesn't get snubbed...it's no wonder why the broadcast networks are not top dog anymore.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 26, 2009 at 08:59 PM
ABC is making another big mistake. And if it costs them ratings, so what? They do NOT respect the viewers. Doing this will only make them angrier since they've cancelled Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, Boston Legal and others.
ABC . . . watch your 6!!!
Posted by: Apres Ski | January 26, 2009 at 09:56 PM
What ABC does not GET... we all have competing medias for our attention... internet, chat, cel phones, texting, chatting, real life, videos, mp3s, dvds, and so on and so on.
When you run programming that essentially serial in nature, where each new episode dovetails off the last... running re-runs... over and over, or interupting the existing flow of the programming, you risk alienating your audience.
LOOK at the FLAMING of the LOST audience... when re-runs and cliff hangers risked losing the audience and the grown of waning attention spans of the MTV generation.
Yes, viewership of Ugly Betty re-runs is probably dropping... why would it not? Does this mean Ugly Betty is not popular?? Certainly not. Wake up and recognize that many of these programs don't perform well, as a re-run to it's fan base, as well as programming that is free-standing in nature (where you can watch a single program that is not hinged on what you did or did not see last week or will see or not see next week). A good example is Law and Order or CSI... each show can be seen... without having to know the data from the other programs to enjoy the content.
SCRUBS... moronic, at best. What I have found interesting about this program... not only is the show lame, the writing does NOT stand up, on any level... when you only LISTEN to the program. When listening, and not watching the performance or benefitting from the interaction of the actors or the nuances of the body language or peripheral activity, you REALLY notice how poorly written this show is.
Posted by: LD | January 27, 2009 at 01:26 AM
I enjoyed Ugly Betty the first season, but by the middle of the second season, it got very tired. I stopped watching it completely. It sounds like other viewers had the same experience.
Posted by: bennyinsf | January 27, 2009 at 09:13 AM
Such a shame this is, really. Finally a positive show featuring minorities and then they yank it.
Posted by: Amelia | January 27, 2009 at 11:21 AM
PLEASE think about what you are doing. UGLY BETTY is the last night time show we NEVER miss and as we don't record it we HAVE to be here to not miss it. It has all the great things in a decent nighttime program. We now have all our friends watching it as well.
Please put it back on the air in it's regular timeslot and in this time of bad government and ecomony let us have some fun, wonderful TV viewing
Posted by: country girl | March 21, 2009 at 09:03 AM