Ugly Betty - International Broadcasts

International Broadcasts

Australia

Its debut episode on the Seven Network pulled in 2.03 million viewers, beating Nine's airing of 60 Minutes and Ten's airing of The Biggest Loser in the same time period. Since its debut the series has remained in the top five in the Australian TV ratings. The season one finale aired August 5, 2007, and received the lowest rating of the year – 1.051 million and only in the 13th slot of the night. This was predominantly because it aired in the same time-slot as the season premiere of rival program Australian Idol. After holding off on the 2nd season, it was announced in April 2008 that Seven would begin Ugly Betty's second season in a new 7:30 pm Wednesday timeslot, beginning on May 7 The show has lost its large following, only drawing around 900,000 viewers despite strong advertising attempts by Channel Seven. The show was "shelved" after the ninth episode was shown on July 2, and will resume airing the remaining episodes until after the Olympics. It was replaced by "RSPCA Animal Rescue". Ugly Betty returned to Seven on August 28, 2008, at a new and later timeslot of 9:30 pm Thursdays. The episode aired, "Bananas For Betty" was viewed by only 597,000 viewers and was removed. Seven later announced that Ugly Betty will return twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm, starting when Summer begins. It was then moved to only once a week at Thursday 7:30 pm. Soon after, the show was pulled from screening (after finishing the second season) due to moderately low ratings. It was later confirmed on October 23, 2009, that Ugly Betty would return to Australian screens on Seven's new secondary digital channel 7Two. It will resume with the premiere of Season 3, "The Manhattan Project", starting Tuesday, November 3, 7:30 pm. It will air right through summer, with Season 3 to then finish in April/May 2010. In digital channel terms, Ugly Betty has been a success, coming first (out of all digital-only channels) in its timeslot, though is averaging 130,000 viewers, well down from its 800,000 and 1.3 million viewers average in seasons two and one respectively. Season 3 has finished airing and the Seven Network are continuing on with Season 4 straight after, starting April 13, 2010, in the same timeslot on 7TWO. Ugly Betty season 1 is also currently airing on Arena TV, an Australian pay TV channel.

Canada

Citytv owns the English-language rights to the series, which aired in the same timeslot as the American broadcast till December 2009, when only the stations in Manitoba and British Columbia started airing it Wednesdays at 7 pm (same time as Eastern ABC where it would be 10 pm, aired earlier than US air in Manitoba), for Ontario and Alberta, OMNI simulcasted Betty Wednesdays at 10PM. In March 2010, Citytv aired Ugly Betty across Canada due to the cancellation of The Jay Leno Show, airing Wednesdays at 10 pm on Citytv, simulcasting ABC's broadcast up until final airing. Radio-Canada, the French language television arm of the CBC, owns the francophone rights. The French version, known as Chère Betty ("Dear Betty"), debuted in Quebec and in the rest of French-speaking Canada on April 7, 2008 at 8:00 pm local time, 9:00 pm AT.

France

The first two episodes aired on TF1 on January 7, 2008 at late-night time, averaging about 3.8 million viewers (28.4% share) and 3.3 millions viewers (39.4% share). Ugly Betty did really well on key demos 15–24 (First episode: 46.8%, second episode: 56.7%) and 18–49 (First episode: 39.7%, second episode: 56.6%). But week after week the show has lost more than 1 million viewers, in part due to the late night schedule. In an effort to attract more viewers, two weekly TV magazines, Arthelius and Series TV Magazine, placed a cover of Ugly Betty on their February 12, 2008 issues.

Ireland

The European premiere took place on RTÉ Two on January 1, 2007. Season two again premiered on RTÉ Two on October 4, 2007. The second season returned after a break on March 24, 2008 at 8:05 pm. Season Three premiered on November 6, 2008, at 8:40 pm on RTÉ Two and finished on June 4, 2009. Season Four premiered on January 5, 2010 at 8:05 pm on RTE Two and finished its run on June 1, 2010. Ugly Betty airs Tuesdays at 8:05 pm on RTÉ Two

New Zealand

The show aired on TV2 at 7:30pm, Sunday nights for season one and two on TV2. The timeslot for season 3 was moved to 5:30 on Sunday night, finishing on August 2, 2009. Season 4 aired at 5.30 pm on Sundays, completing its run on June 27, 2010.

South Africa

Ugly Betty premiered in South Africa on Pay Channel, M-Net on Tuesday July 17, 2007. It later was re-broadcast on sister channels, GO and M-Net Holiday. The first season fared well with audience's and was a hit for the channel with a strong buzz around the show. Due to heavy promotions for the show across all media spectrums by M-Net, the premiere episode of Ugly Betty attracted 80% more viewers than Smallville which previously occupied its time slot. M-Net marketing General Manager, Koo Govender, says the first episode was watched by about 432,000 viewers. Generally for its first season, Ugly Betty often generated 350 000 viewers with each airing, bringing in good ratings for the channel. Seasons 2 and 3 aired in the same timeslot as its premiere season; Tuesday evenings at 7:30 pm CAT, with Season 2 premiering on March 25, 2008. The channel premiered Season 3 on Tuesday January 13. In its third season the show still pulls in strong ratings similar to its premiere season keeping a consistent fan base. M-Net repeats the show on Wednesdays at 5:00 pm CAT.

United Kingdom

The premiere on Channel 4 on January 5, 2007 attracted 4.5 million viewers. Two weeks later, Ugly Betty hit a new high with 5.5 million viewers watching the third episode.

The figures and shares were similar each week, around 2–3 million viewers with 10–15% share; however, the finale rated less than the premiere episode, attracting 3.1 million viewers with 15% share. This could have been due to Channel 4 moving the show half an hour later that evening to accommodate an extended edition of Big Brother.

Due to the show's success and the fanbase it has achieved in the UK, Channel 4 decided to move up the second season premiere to Friday, October 5, 2007, thus allowing viewers to watch episodes one week after their U.S. airing.

The show went on hiatus from Friday December 12 due to the WGA strike, the last shown episode was Bananas for Betty. Season 2 resumed on September 5, 2008 at 9 pm with the episode "Zero Worship". Season 2 finished on Channel 4, the last episode being shown on Friday, October 17, 2008.

Season 3 started on Wednesday June 24, 2009 with "The Manhattan Project". The show aired on Wednesday nights up until Wednesday, September 30, 2009, when it was replaced by the new season of True Blood. Season 3 was broadcasted on E4 on Tuesday nights at 9 pm, and on Channel 4 (standard and HD); on Monday nights at 10. Its last episode, "The Fall Issue", was shown on Monday, December 7, 2009.

Season 4 premiered in the UK on Wednesday August 11 at 9 pm. and completed its 20-episode run on Wednesday December 22, 2010. This season, however, was first broadcast on E4, Channel 4's sister channel, before a Sunday afternoon catch-up on Channel 4.

Brazil

The show aired on Sony at 11:00am on Monday and SBT at 02:00am on Tuesday. On July 2, 2008, premiered the first season of the series was aired Wednesdays at 22:30 at night. On May 20, 2009, premiered the second season of the series was aired Wednesdays at first 23:50 and then was moved to 01:15. On November 30, 2010 to September 20, 2011, the SBT reprised the first two seasons at 02:00am on Tuesday. On September 27, 2011, the SBT, again showing the series 2:30 am and opened the third season of the series that was exhibited until March 6, 2012. Still no confirmation when premiere the fourth and final season.

United States (Insular Territories and Overseas Military location)

In Guam, ABC affiliate KTGM aired the series twice a week, Thursdays at 9:00 pm (actually a same-day Wednesday night airing due to Guam being a day ahead of the United States) followed by a repeat during the week when a timeslot is available. They were the only ABC affiliate in the United States to air the show twice.

The Armed Forces Network's AFN-Spectrum channel: airs the series on Wednesdays. The network will usually start airing the latest episodes a couple of months after the US broadcasts, as opposed to waiting a year after its stateside airing.