Production
The idea to bring Ugly Betty to American TV screens began in 2001 when NBC was planning to adapt Betty as a half-hour comedy, which would be produced by Columbia TriStar Television (now Sony Pictures Television) but it did not get past the planning stages (three writers were needed to come up with a concept based around the character) until ABC and Hayek's company came on board in 2004 and retooled it as an hour-long comedy drama.
ABC had announced the title of the series would be Betty the Ugly, a change from its development title, but changed it back to Ugly Betty on July 14, 2006.
On October 13, 2006, ABC ordered a full season pick-up for the series, beyond the original 13 ordered at the May Upfronts due to its premiere ratings. ABC originally announced 22 episodes for season one, but increased the number of episodes by one to 23. The season finale is the episode called "East Side Story". On March 21, 2007, ABC renewed the series for a second season.
Although he subsequently joined NBC as their new entertainment head, Ben Silverman remained co-executive producer on the show, but in a limited role.
In November 2007, the cast of the series made headlines when they threw their support behind the 2007 Writers' strike by joining them on the picket line in solidarity. Ferrera commented on the reason they did this: "The issues coming up with the actors' contracts are very similar to what the writers are dealing with right now, and we have to stay united and stand strong within the creative community for what we believe is fair." On November 25, the cast appeared in a 38-second video for "Speechless Hollywood" in which a black & white camera pulled away from a close up of Ferrera to show her co-stars sitting next to her as they look directly at the camera without speaking.
On February 11, 2008, ABC picked up Ugly Betty for the 2008–09 television season, along with nine other shows. On the same day the renewal was announced, two of the show's executive producers, Marco Pennette and James Hayman, were let go. Their departure added to the constant off-camera turnovers on the series, including the exiting or firing of five writers. In a Q&A from TV Guide, Michael Ausiello criticized the decision, saying, "someone saw fit to fix what wasn't broken" and praised the two men for writing several of the show's best episodes. These turns of events may have also contributed to Rebecca Romijn's decision to no longer be a full-time regular on the series in the third season, citing the move by new writers to make changes in the direction of several characters, especially Romijn's role as Alexis.
With the strike over as of February 12, the possibility existed for seven new episodes to be completed by April, bringing the number of second-season episodes produced to 20, but only 18 episodes were eventually produced. As a result of the strike, creator Silvio Horta delayed plans for a musical episode and having Lindsay Lohan on board for a possible storyline until the third season. Four days later on February 16, 2008, ABC picked up Ugly Betty for the 2008–09 television season.
On March 12, 2008, Horta signed a two-year, seven-figure deal with ABC Studios, which guaranteed the show's future and gave Horta a chance to produce other projects aside from Ugly Betty.
On May 6, 2008, ABC announced that starting with the third season, Ugly Betty would return to New York City and start production there. The move was done to bring the authenticity of the great series' setting into the show and to take advantage of a tax credit offered by the State of New York's Governor's Office of Motion Picture and Television Development. The production returned to Silvercup Studios in Queens, where the original pilot was produced. The move resulted in several Los Angeles crew members being let go. These events led California Assemblyman Paul Krekorian to introduce bill AB X315, the "Ugly Betty Bill", which would keep television and film production from leaving the state by using tax incentives. The bill was passed by the assembly and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed it into law on February 19, 2009.
In January 2009, ABC announced that it was putting Ugly Betty on hold to make room for the new comedies In the Motherhood and Samantha Who? in the Thursday night time slot. The series' aired one more original episode on March 19, 2009.
The move by ABC and the show's declining ratings led viewers to believe that ABC would cancel the show, but on February 17, 2009, Becki Newton stated that the show had been picked up for a fourth season. That statement would later be confirmed on March 5, 2009, when Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment Group, announced that ABC planned to renew Ugly Betty. On April 23, 2009, ABC gave an early fourth-season renewal to Betty.
Ugly Betty began airing on Friday nights starting October 16, 2009, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern/8:00 p.m. Central, although it was originally scheduled to start a week earlier on October 9. This caused fans and critics to worry that ABC wished to end the show, since that time slot is perceived as the Friday night death slot. On July 24, 2009, TV Guide Network announced that it had acquired the exclusive cable rights to the show and would air the fourth-season episodes two weeks after their ABC run with an option to strip the show daily, with plans to air it weekly starting in the fall of 2010.
With Eastwick recently cancelled, ABC began considering moving Ugly Betty to the Wednesday night 10:00 p.m. Eastern/9:00 p.m. Central timeslot, although talks arose of moving Lost to that same time slot. On December 1, 2009, ABC made the move to Wednesday official by announcing that it would start airing new episodes on its new night starting January 6, 2010.
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