It was announced today that ABC is pulling the plug on the ratings disaster that has become Ugly Betty. The show started as a fairly popular fish out of water tale, but even our own Blend Television editor and fan of the series kind of fell away from caring too much about the show in recent seasons. It’s doubtful that the Friday night timeslot back in the fall helped much with ratings. In addition to canceling the show, ABC has also cut back on the number of episodes ordered from 22 to 20.
“We’ve mutually come to the difficult decision to make this Ugly Betty’s final season, and are announcing now as we want to allow the show ample time to write a satisfying conclusion,” ABC president Stephen McPherson and Betty Executive Producer Silvio Horta said in a joint statement. “ We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking series, and felt it was important to give the fans a proper farewell.”
At least fans will get a somewhat satisfying conclusion to the current storylines. In a television world where shows seem to be cancelled every week it’s the few that get to wrap up their tales. Dollhouse’s cancellation by Fox made that show incredible, so maybe this move by ABC will allow the creators of Ugly Betty to go out on a high note.
