'Ugly Betty' Names This Season Its Last, Series to End in April
Producers announced today that the current season of "Ugly Betty" will be its last, Variety is reporting. Cast and crew were told today that the ABC will no longer air episodes of the show and the finale of the current season will be the finale of the series, planned to air in April.
Four episodes have not yet been produced for the current season and series executive producer Silvio Horta and ABC Entertainment Group chairman Steve McPherson said they chose to make the decision now to allow time to provide closure to the series.
"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," they 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."
The series cancellation is not completely unexpected, as the show was to be cancelled at the end of last season, but received a stay of execution on the basis that it move from its standard Thursday night time slot to Friday nights. However, earlier this season, "Ugly Betty" was moved to 10:00pm Wednesday nights.
'Ugly Betty' stars America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, Eric Mabius as Daniel Meade, Tony Plana as Ignacio, Ana Ortiz as Hilda, Judith Light as Claire Meade, Becki Newton as Amanda, Michael Urie as Marc, Mark Indelicato as Justin, Daniel Eric Gold as Matt Hartley and Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater.
The series has seen guest appearances by several Broadway stars, including Bernadette Peters, Brian Stokes-Mitchell, Rob Bartlett, Kristin Chenoweth, Michael Urie, Tony Plana, Patti LuPone, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
'Ugly Betty' airs Wednesdays at 10/9 central on the ABC Television Network. The show is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format, with 5.1-channel surround sound and Spanish subtitles via secondary closed captioning.
