Ugly Betty - Production

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 Sony Pictures Television but it never made past the planning stages (It took three writers 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. Two years later, on May 16, 2006, ABC announced that Ugly Betty would be part of the 2006–2007 North American season lineup as a weekly hour-long series; the initial order was for 13 episodes.

ABC had announced the title of the series would be Betty the Ugly, a change from its developmental title, but changed it back to Ugly Betty on July 14, although the Ugly Betty title was already being used in promotions prior to this date on Citytv. There was speculation that the show would be a daily serial that would have debuted as a summer 2006 or midseason 2007 entry, but given the buzz and growing interest in the show, the network decided to make it a weekly series instead. On August 8, 2006, ABC decided at the last minute to make a schedule change to move Ugly Betty from its previously announced Friday 8 p.m. (ET) time period to Thursday at 8 p.m. replacing sitcoms Notes from the Underbelly and Big Day as a lead-in to top-rated program Grey's Anatomy, due to the growing interest in the show.

The program's pilot was tested on several cable providers to gauge interest and feedback from viewers, most notably the Hispanic community, including those who are fans of the original Betty, who hoped that ABC would maintain the integrity of the original. ABC also allowed its affiliates to show free off-air screenings to the public at various events ahead of the show's debut. In addition the network screened the debut episode on the web and made the episodes available for download on iTunes after their initial airings on January 5, 2007. The encore episodes also have run on ABC Family and SOAPnet, both of which have aired marathons of the show.

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 the season 1, 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 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 why 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 showing 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. Unfortunately on the day the renewal was announced, two of the show's executive producers, Marco Pennette and James Hayman, were let go. The departures of Pennette and Hayman adds to the constant turnovers on the series off-camera, which has so far seen five writers having exited or fired. In a Q&A from TV Guide, Michael Ausiello criticized the decision, saying "that someone saw fit to fix what wasn't broken" and praised the two men for writing several of the show's best episodes. These turn 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, there was the possibility that they could have seven new episodes completed by April, bringing the number of second season episodes produced to 20, but so far it has been adjusted to 18. As a result of the strike, creator Silvio Horta has 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 inked a two-year, seven-figure deal with ABC Studios, which guarantees the show's future and gives Horta a chance to produce other projects aside from Betty.

On April 17, 2008, the show's podcast, which is usually presented in audio and hosted by stars Urie and Newton, became available on video for the first time.

On May 6, 2008, ABC announced that starting with the third season, Ugly Betty will return to New York City and start production there. The move was done to bring the authenticity of the series' setting into the show and to take advantage of a tax credit offered by the State of New York's Governors Office of Motion Picture and Television Development. The production is returning to Silvercup Studios in Queens, where the original pilot was produced. The move resulted in several crewmembers in Los Angeles being let go. These events would lead 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 a new comedy In the Motherhood and Samantha Who? in the Thursday night time slot. The series' last original episode aired on March 19, 2009 and the current season would have finished up sometime in June 2009. It was then announced on Sunday, March 15, 2009, that Ugly Betty will return for its final five episodes of the season on Thursday, April 30, 2009 from a five-week break. Technically it was supposed to be back on May 7, but due to low ratings for Motherhood, ABC moved it up a week. ABC has since pulled Motherhood from the schedule after their April 16, 2009 airing. The two-episode season finale aired on Thursday, May 21 from 8–10 pm.

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 has 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 plans to renew Ugly Betty. On April 23, 2009, ABC gave an early fourth season renewal to Betty.

Ugly Betty was renewed by ABC for a fourth season and began airing on Friday nights starting October 16, 2009, at 9:00 pm Eastern/8:00 pm Central, although it was scheduled to start a week earlier on October 9. This caused fans and critics to worry that ABC wishes 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 has acquired the exclusive cable rights to the show and will air the fourth season episodes 14 days after its 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 canceled, ABC began considering moving Ugly Betty to the Wednesday night 10:00PM Eastern/9:00PM Central timeslot, although there was talk of moving Lost to that same timeslot. On December 1, 2009, ABC, sensing a backlash from viewers over its decision to move it to Fridays, its sliding ratings and praises from critics over the improved storylines, made the move to Wednesday official by announcing that it would start airing new episodes on its new night starting January 6, 2010.