Under the deal inked with Disney-ABC, TV Guide network will begin airing new installments of Ugly Betty within two weeks of their run on ABC.  This will begin following the show’s October 9th 2-hour season premiere.

TV Guide will also run the show as a weekly strip beginning in fall 2010 when TVGuide.com will have rights to stream up to five Ugly Betty episodes at a time.  (Currently, new episodes are available at ABC.com and Hulu.com the next day after airing).

Sources say the license deal was at about $200,000 per episode.  Now it makes sense why this hasn’t already happened at ABC Family, where I expected Ugly Betty to land on cable.  That kind of moolah can turn a few executive heads.  (But then again, Spike TV paid 3 times that much for Entourage).

Ryan O’Hara, president of TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com, said Betty “will become a cornerstone of TV Guide Network’s schedule.”

“It gives us really good stability,” he said. “We’ve had spikes with events but never a great amount of stability, and ‘Betty’ will give us that. It will be on every night of the week in primetime for years to come.”

Wow.

TV Guide has been moving toward acquiring shows to complement its in-house offerings.  It canceled TV Watercooler, turned Hollywood 411 into a weekly, rather than daily show, and changed weekly show Infanity into specials.

Next up for TV Guide?  Signing new people as anchors and stars of new unscripted series, and pursuing new original series.

So, if you can’t get enough Betty, check it out this fall on TV Guide Channel!

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Episodes of Grey’s Anatomy  are now available on the site – five episodes from season five.

“Over the next two weeks, more ABC shows will launch on Hulu as part of our ongoing Hulu Days of Summer promotion, including current hits like I Survived a Japanese Game Show and The Superstars, as well as popular shows like Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty and Scrubs,” a Hulu spokesman said.

Also to be available soon under the Disney/ABC umbrella are shows from ABC Family, SOAPNet, and The Disney Channel. Disney will also contribute selections from Walt Disney Studios and original, short-form content.

It will be kind of neat to be able to stream episodes of The Office, Family Guy, and The Daily Show along with ABC favorites like Grey’s, Wipeout, and, of course, Ugly Betty.  This, to me as a consumer, is the real advantage of Ugly Betty being available on Hulu.  I’ll be honest, I LOVE ABC’s video player as it is.

That being said, testing Grey’s on Hulu’s player shows that it might even be better.  Streamed in high-res (480p), full screen, the clarity is wonderful, and I can’t wait to see Ugly Betty on the player.  I haven’t looked into the embedding feature, certainly there have to be some limitations – maybe some of you are more familiar and can fill me in on Hulu’s embed policy.

As usual, you readers outside the US are left out of the loop, due to licensing reasons.  Hulu does, however, plan on launching in the UK in September.

It’ll be great to have Ugly Betty available on another platform!

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That was quick.

But, the Mike Judge show isn’t totally dead: It’s moving to Fridays at 8:30 p.m. on June 12, slotted behind original episodes of “Surviving Suburbia”. At 9. 

“Wife Swap” currently airs Fridays from 8-9. ABC had previously decided to air repeats of “Samantha Who” Fridays from 9-10, starting this week– perhaps to warm up the timeslot for “Ugly Betty,” which relocates to the night in the fall.

As for me, I kind of wish Samantha Who? could find its way to the same night as Ugly Betty.  If it’s on Fridays, the so be it.  Although I don’t really care for Surviving Suburbia very much, I see much potential in The Goode Family (the last episode was much better than the pilot), and would love to see it as a replacement part of a new comedy night on ABC, anchored by Ugly Betty.

For those of you in the business – with the advent of DVRs and online viewing, is Friday really a death-knell for a show?  Could a comedy block not work, even on Fridays?

In related news, ABC has decided to move up the second season premiere of “I Survived a Japenese Game Show” to June 17.  It will replace the double run of “Goode” in the 9 p.m. Wednesday slot. The network said earlier this spring that “Game Show” wouldn’t return until July.

I LOVED last year’s run of Game Show.  Too bad they can’t find a way to fit IT into prime time as an Ugly betty lead-in.

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I have to hand it to Reveille, the production company behind Ugly Betty and The Office.  They’ve never been afraid to roll the dice.  But I have to wonder if they are betting too big on a real longshot: a Twitter-based TV show.

According to Variety, Twitter has been in talks with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to create a program based on the Web service. The show has been described as “putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.” (Sounds kind of like entertainment blogging to me )

I’ve been trying to figure out how this would work.  Apparently, contestants in a reality show would be given their assignments via Twitter.  Sounds kind of silly and boring to me.

At the Twitter blog, Twitter says it has chatted with other media execs regarding television programs, but this talks on this particular project have resulted in “a lightweight, non-exclusive, agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely.”

Well, that’s pretty committal.

Anyway, I think the ONLY way a Twitter show would work is if a scripted or non-scripted show were “live-Tweeted” by the public, ala PopUp Video from VH1 back in the day.  Of course, it would have to be heavily censored, but it could be a lot of fun.

So, do you have any ideas of what a Twitter TV show would look like?  Has Reveille lost its mind?

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It’s called the Ugly Betty Bill, of course, because the show’s move to New York (along with hundreds of jobs), was a wake up call for both Hollywood and the state of California.  Of course, ugly Betty was just the latest in a stream of Films, TV shows, and commercials that either moved or were produced outside of California.  For instance, the upcoming Hannah Montana, The Movie was filmed in and around my hometown of Nashville, TN.  There are also many TV shows that film in Canada.

The bill will provides $500 million in incentives over five years in the hopes that films and TV shows will be going back to the state (including Ugly Betty, but I don’t think they can put that genie back into the bottle).

As an aside, I’ve noticed that the term “Ugly Betty” has fully entered the pop culture lexicon.  I’ve seen the term used in politics, religion, and especially sports.  It’s pretty much an official term in ice hockey now: and Ugly Betty defense is one where the defense hunkers down and tries to rough up the other team, with no thought of turning the puck and getting their own scoring chance.  I don’t know, I just find that interesting.

Anyway, I hope this new law will help California get its act together, although I still think there’s no way Ugly Betty is ever leaving NYC.

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The conversation has been about whether or not Ugly Betty should be moved to another night.  I have to tell you, the thought intrigues me a little.

Betty does well in the “demos”, and even better in the young women demographic (it actually beats Survivor).  But, it’s barely enough to keep the show “safe” in the Renew or Cancel index.  Someone suggested that Betty would do well moving to Tuesday night at 9, following the Dancing With The Stars results show.

I think this is an excellent idea.  Without young women, Ugly Betty would have already been canceled.  If it were to follow DWTS, that would only enhance the show’s strength.  I would guess that if the producers of Ugly Betty can get their act straight, the show could easily gain 1-2 million viewers carrying over from DWTS (not to mention the promotion during one of ABC’s biggest shows).

I’ve given up on the idea that Ugly Betty is ever going to draw decent numbers of men.  They used to give us males ample eye candy (especially Daniel’s “conquests”) and a few story lines that appealed to male sensibilities, but sometime in season 2 the producers knew where their bread was buttered, and turned all their attention to pleasing the ladies.  (It really doesn’t bother being a “gay” show anymore, either).

If this is the case, I think following DWTS would be a real jolt for the show’s ratings.  What do you think?  Would a move to Tuesday night be a good thing?

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[...Pats self on back for resisting and sticking with the word "benching"]

Thank goodness for blogging. Yesterday, Michael Urie, one of the show’s stars, helped calm many of us with this posting at his blog. He says,

come on, really? Here are the facts:

We are going to finish shooting our original 3rd season order – 24
episodes (currently on 16).

At the end of March, we’re going off the air for a while, at a time
when we would normally be on for a few weeks, off for a few,
confusing and angering fans with repeats.

In June, we come back, and finish the last 6 episodes of the season
without interruption!

Then, EW’s Ausiello, in his Ask Ausiello report, gives us a little more insight, and softens his language a little bit from his earlier report. He says the Betty situation is “Not nearly as dire as I first thought. Shortly after my story posted, several very trustworthy ABC insiders came forward to assure me that the perception is much worse than the reality in this case. The reality, they say, is it’s highly unlikely that Betty will be forced to close out its third season in June, as the network’s ominously worded press release seemed to suggest.”

This is a little different from what Michael Urie said in his post, but more on that in a minute. Ausiello then relays the best news of all: “And regarding next season, two of the three sources I queried seemed very confident that Betty would be back next season.”

I think what’s been confusing everyone is that ABC has given no indication (that I can tell) about the length of Samantha Who? and In the Motherhood’s run. The signs seem to point to a shorter run than many of us had guessed. Will this mean Betty will be back in time for May sweeps? We’ll all just have to wait until ABC tells us.

Nevertheless, things are looking much brighter for the show than they were two days ago!

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It might be wishful thinking but I keep coming back to “benching does not equal cancelling”. An ABC representative insists, “…Betty is a solid performer and there is no question that it will definitely be back to complete its season, just without repeats.”

Then there’s this: EOnline’s Kristin spoke to ABC insiders, and says, “The Alphabet net is looking at more of a cable model when it comes to its programming and scheduling. ‘

McPherson is interested in reducing the number of reruns,’ one well-placed insider tells me, adding that Betty—after its dip in the ratings this season—seemed the best place to slot in Samantha [Who?] and Motherhood.”

Let’s take the ABC suits at their word. No, quit smirking – we have no other choice. Stick with me here. Let’s say Betty comes back at the end of sweeps, and runs through much of the summer. Can that work? Has it ever been tried by a broadcast network before?

I do know that shows (especially on cable) can have devoted followings during the summer. I know my family actually blocked out time this past summer to watch “Wipeout” and “I Survived a Japanese Gameshow” (we’re weird like that…).

What I do know is this. The ratings for Ugly Betty were not great for a Thursday night 8pm show leading into a mega-hit. But they weren’t bad enough to give the show the axe altogether, IMHO. The darling of Hollywood, 30 Rock, had 1.1 million fewer overall viewers than Betty last week. (But to be fair, it did better in the 18-49 demos).

There are still many questions. Let’s say Ugly Betty does well when it comes back (for arguments sake, let’s say it stays in the 7-8 million range; that’s pretty good for summer). If it is brought back for a 4th season, would that season start in September, or would Betty become one of those shows that begins in January (or later?)

I will stay on top of this, and let you know ANY news as soon as I get it. Also, remember – there are still at least 2 episodes that will air before the benching.

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(That’s always been true, this is just a good way for a numbers geek like me to evaluate ratings). 

Anyway, Ugly Betty throughout season 3 has teetered on the line between “Not Likely To Be Renewed“ and  “Renewal Likely for 2009-10“.  As of this week, the show is listed on the line again, but still in the “Renewal Likely” category.  Of course, we haven’t had an influx of new episodes to measure lately, so we’ll just have to see where Betty moves the next few weeks.

Betty has actually fared pretty well against venerable powerhouse Survivor in the demos (actually winning the Young Women category most of the time).  With Survivor in mid-season hiatus, now is make or break time for Ugly Betty.  One possible pitfall, though, is the fact that it is now going head-to-head with Fox’s Bones, a show that has done much better than Betty thus far.

I know at least one commenter at Ugly Betty news has stated that Bones will be the show they watch, and Ugly Betty will be on the DVR.  This should get interesting.

So, call everyone you know and ask them to watch Ugly Betty tonight!  (Except grandma; her viewing only helps the overall numbers, not the all-important “demos”.  Oh, and stop by here for the live blog at 8/7c!

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According to Ausiello at EW Online, Blue has joined the cast of Sci Fi Channel’s Stargate Universe. This is the third (and edgiest, they say) installment of the series.

Blue, along with headliner Robert Carlyle, plays “Eli Wallace, a total slacker who just happens to be an utter genius with anything he puts his mind to — mathematics, computers, video games. A lack confidence has left him with an acerbic sense of humor”, Ausiello reports.

Wow – it sounds similar to the role David had in Moonlight – perhaps he’s found a niche? The brilliant,loveable slob/slacker? I can relate. It’s funny, some actors are downright compulsive about being typecast; others are simply happy to get a good role. David appears to be as brilliant as the characters he plays – he is making the right decision, IMHO.

It sounds like this character will have a little more edge than Cliff on Ugly Betty, so Blue will definitely be displaying his range.

It’s been fun watching David “blossom”, and his exposure on Ugly Betty was certainly good for him. Along with Ralph Macchio, Blue is probably the most liked of all the guest stars the show has had over the years. That’s some pretty heady company.

We will definitely miss David on Ugly Betty (but let’s face it – it was obvious they were having a hard time figuring out what to do with Cliff), and I’d like to be one of the first to congratulate Blue on what appears to be a great gig!

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