Here is the promo for Ugly Betty, The Complete Third Season on DVD:

Man, watching all those little snippets, I had forgotten how much the show changed over the course of season 3.   Those Lindsay Lohan scenes seem like they were from several seasons ago.  Some of them were pretty good, but I don’t think her appearance was worth it.  It certainly didn’t help the ratings. 

I am really looking forward to this DVD - I have a feeling several of the episodes will get better as they are viewed again (and in the context of what happened later in the season).  I know that in the course of doing episode recaps, a couple of the episodes grew on me, even though I didn’t care for them at first.

Of course, the bloopers and behind the scenes footage are always fun, so that’s another reason to get the DVD.

Ugly Betty, The Complete Third Season will be released on September 22, which will give you enough time to get revved up for Ugly Betty season4!

****A LITTLE HOUSEKEEPING****

Ugly Betty News is on Twitter now - tweet tweet!  If you follow UBN, we’ll follow you!  Many times something is out there that is cool but maybe not bloggable; I’ll tweet them as often as I can!

Also, I’m aware of some weirdness going on with the comments - y’all hang with us - our crack technical team is working on it as we speak!

UPDATE: The comment problem has been fixed!

ABC is already shuffling its summer schedule, pulling low-rated animated series The Goode Family from Wednesday nights.

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.

Image: Bauer-Griffin

ABC doled out some early pickups for next fall today, and Ugly Betty was amongst them!  Depending on how you look at it, it was a surprise, yet it was not a surprise.

It wasn’t as much of a surprise to those who have been paying attention to what the ABC execs have been saying.  The surprise (at least to me), is that the show was included in early pickups before the “up fronts”, a distinction usually reserved for the strongest performing shows.

Along with Betty, in the announcement today were renewals for such stalwarts as Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters and Private Practice - as well as Lost, which will have its final season next year.

Also according to Variety,  unscripted shows Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelor, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Wife Swap and Supernanny are a lock for 2009-2010.

Still on the bubble is Samantha Who?, although it’s widely believed that it will get one more season.  Better Off Ted is also on the bubble, along with Castle, Cupid, and The Unusuals.

What I find most encouraging about this renewal for Ugly Betty is that it puts them within a season of being eligible for syndication (although the formula is off by a few episodes because of the WGA strike).  This makes the likelihood of a fifth season of Ugly Betty much more likely, barring any further deterioration in the ratings.  But, I get ahead of myself.

So, break out the Betty dance, she’s been renewed!!!  Woohoo!

Image: Copyright © 2008 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc./ PATRICK HARBRON

The news about Ugly Betty’s future has been all over the place. The original press release from ABC about the show’s benching was way too open-ended, and caused all kinds of speculation. Many web (and even news) sites erroneously reported that Ugly Betty was being “cancelled”, or the almost-as-ominous-sounding “shelved”.

[...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!

Image: Bauer-Griffin

The Ugly Betty fan community is still in shock over yesterday’s news of the show’s benching by ABC. Life does go on, and there will be more news to report later, but, of course, foremost on our minds is the fate of our favorite show.

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. ‘[ABC President Steve] 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.

Image: Newscom

Welcome to our (finally!) weekly gathering of Ugly Betty fanatics. Join us as we watch and react to the latest episode. Tonight’s episode is 3.12, Sisters on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

Betty is torn between work and home in the wake of a family crisis that finds her at odds with Hilda. Meanwhile, “secret” couples Daniel & Molly and Connor & Wilhelmina try to hide their escalating love connections.

Because of the theme of this week’s show, I’d expect most of the comedy to come from the love quadrangle, with possibly some good quips thrown in by Marc. I suspect, based on the heavily dramatic theme, that this might be the episode ABC submits for Emmys for both America Ferrera and Ana Ortiz. We’ll see.

Note: there is a highly contested local election in my city today. The first few minutes of the episode might be pre-empted for the results, or they may just put the scroll at the bottom of the screen. Even in the worst case, I expect to join the live blog shortly after the episode begins. Most likely, I’ll be there from the start.

Join us, won’t you?

In case you haven’t seen it yet, ModeNY.com, the online presence of fictional fashion magazine Mode from Ugly Betty, has become more and more integrated with the actual show.

In episode 3.10, Bad Amanda, ModeNY.com was actually a huge part of the plot, especially an article that Betty and Amanda were charged with writing. That article, How I Blew Ten Grand Without Spending A Dime, is now posted on the Mode NY web site.

It is written in Betty’s voice (not easy to do), just as “Amanda’s Blog” is written in her voice. That tells me the Ugly Betty writers have something to do with this. Betty twists between narrative of the events in 3.10, and waxing philosophical:

I have to mention that I’ve been to the Grand Canyon, and it was a wonder to behold, but I am still in awe of the phenomenon that is Amanda in a department store. I’ve never seen anyone more in control of an environment. This is what it must have been like to watch Alexander the Great control his men during his conquest of Asia.

I love it. This is definitely something Betty would write. Another snippet (about the wonderful scene where Betty has to think on her feet to take care of the huge restaurant bill she and Amanda were left with):

Let’s consider our subsequent scamming a bonus lesson – things never go according to plan, so always be prepared to adapt and think on your feet. In our situation, it also helped that we were dealing with an incredibly understanding dining establishment. Clearly, this is a restaurant who knows how to cater to its customers. The superb food was only surpassed by its service. Even though we didn’t pay for the meal, it would’ve been worth the price. The fine people at The Shire are the best that the New York dining scene has to offer.

This, of course, is the prominent feature Betty promised the manager in exchange for “taking care of” the bill. So cool. And were learn the name of the restaurant - The Shire.

ModeNy has now fully reached its promise; it’s a true compliment to the show. When episodes air one Thursday, one can usually go to ModeNY on Friday and get true bonus content about that week’s episode (not to mention the Letter From The Editor and Amanda’s Blog).

My only quibble: why didn’t Amanda share the byline? Yes, Betty “wrote” the article, but Amanda had a big part in that. Oh well, like I said, it’s a small quibble.

All in all, great job, ABC.

Welcome to our Ugly Betty live blog, our first in a while! This week’s episode is 3.10, Bad Amanda. The synopsis:

Betty is forced to take a page from scam-artist Amanda’s book when the two, both cash-strapped, team up for a Mode website article about “How I Blew Ten Grand Without Spending a Dime” during a night on the town in NYC they’ll never forget.

This has the chance of being a great episode - it looks like they are going to let Becki Newton “do her thing”.

So, join us at 8/7c as we watch and react to “Bad Amanda”!

Welcome to our weekly gathering of Ugly Betty fanatics, otherwise known as the Ugly Betty News episode Live Blog. This week’s episode is 3.09, When Betty Met YETI:

Competition gets fierce when Betty and Marc both apply to YETI, the Young Editors Training Program that could be their ticket out of assistant-land . . . but there’s only room for one of them. Meanwhile Justin makes an unlikely friend, Daniel finds himself attracted to Molly (guest star Sarah Lafleur) and Wilhelmina does her best to get Connor’s (Grant Bowler) attention.

This will probably be a catty and fierce episode…for a while. Something tells me Marc and Betty are going to end up working together before it’s all over.

I love that they are continuing the love square (rectangle? parallelagram?).

So, join us at 8/7 central tonight!

Read more

Welcome to the weekly live blog of Ugly Betty! This week’s episode is 3.08, Tornado Girl.

Betty needs Daniel’s help to prevent an issue of Mode from shipping that could result in a PR nightmare for the magazine. The problem is, he’s unreachable at a company retreat. Meanwhile, Hilda starts a clandestine beauty salon when the city turns down her permit for a legal business, and Connor’s fiance (guest star Sarah LeFleur) meets the Modies.

I think this one is going to be full of comedy, and I can’t wait! Join us at 8/7c for all the fun!