Why ABC Canceled Ugly Betty After 4 Seasons

This article contains discussions of suicide.

Based on the Colombian telenovela “Yo soy Betty, la fea,” the ABC sitcom “Ugly Betty” ran for four seasons from 2006 to 2010 and helped make lead actress America Ferrera into a major star. So why did it get canceled so quickly? Will there ever be a reunion? Oh, and also — what was “Ugly Betty” about, besides a girl named Betty who isn’t as “pretty” as other women?

The show stars America Ferrera as the titular Betty Suarez, who, despite her braces and admittedly strange fashion sense, lands a job at Mode Magazine in Manhattan as an assistant to notorious womanizer Daniel Meade (Eric Mabius). (Daniel’s father and publishing magnate Bradford, played by Alan Dale, specifically hires Betty hoping his son won’t end up hitting on her.) Along the way, Betty ends up making some unlikely friends and allies, including Daniel himself — the two have a genuinely wholesome friendship, actually — but also has to face off against the imperious creative director of Mode, Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams), as well as her cronies Marc St. James (Michael Urie) and Amanda Tanen (Becki Newton). 

“Ugly Betty” was popular with critics and audiences alike and certainly boosted Ferrera’s career — she even won an Emmy for the role in 2007 — so what happened here? Here’s the full story of “Ugly Betty’s” cancellation and what the stars have said about it since it ended.

Despite the fact that “Ugly Betty” was decently successful for ABC at the beginning of its run — and had Salma Hayek-Pinault as an executive producer — it started to run into some trouble in 2008 when two other executive producers, James Hayman and Marco Pennette, were let go alongside a handful of the show’s writers. This definitely wasn’t a great sign, and unfortunately, things only got worse for “Ugly Betty.” 

By January 2009, the show was put “on hold” so that new shows like “Samantha Who?” and “In the Motherhood” could take its spot. With ratings in a slow but steady decline, rumors swirled that the show was about to get canceled, but then it was picked up for season 4 … which would turn out to be its last. Before the cancellation was officially announced, though, ABC moved the show from Thursday nights to the dreaded “Friday night death slot” (9 PM Eastern). “Ugly Betty” episodes were later moved to a Wednesday night slot, but that wasn’t enough to save it. in January 2010, ABC officially axed the series.

In a statement provided to Entertainment Weekly when news of the cancellation broke, creator Silvio Horta and the then-President of ABC Entertainment Steve McPherson said, “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. We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking series, and felt it was important to give the fans a proper farewell.”

When “Ugly Betty” was canceled, Silvio Horta — who had a development deal with ABC at the time — released that brief statement with Stephen McPherson, which is all he publicly said on the subject. In 2011 he also made a deal with Sony, presumably after his one with ABC timed out, but sadly, Horta’s life ended tragically in 2020.

That year, Variety reported that the “Ugly Betty” creator was found dead in a hotel room in Miami, Florida, and his death was eventually ruled a suicide. Horta was 45 years old when he died. Cast members posted tributes quickly, including America Ferrera, who wrote an ode to Horta on a since-deleted Instagram post (via Deadline). “I’m stunned and heartbroken to hear the devastating news of ‘Ugly Betty’ creator Silvio Horta’s death,” Ferrera wrote at the time. “His talent and creativity brought me and so many others such joy & light. I’m thinking of his family and loved ones who must be in so much pain right now — and of the whole Ugly Betty family who feel this loss so deeply.” 

Horta’s final show, the Starz series “P-Valley” — he worked on it as a consultant — started airing after his death.

America Ferrera has stayed quite busy since starring in “Ugly Betty” — which is great, because she’s an excellent performer who makes any project better with her mere presence. At this point, she’s probably best known for her voice performance in the “How to Train Your Dragon” films, her main role as Amy Sosa in “Superstore” (a series she also produced), and, of course, her supporting role (and now-legendary monologue) in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” movie – which earned her an Oscar nomination. So, what has Ferrera said about a potential “Ugly Betty” revival?

Entertainment Weekly held a cast reunion panel in 2017, where Ferrera joked, “Hulu’s going to pick us up for a two-hour special, so we’re going to find out [what happened],” she said. “That’s not true, but if you tweet it. Everybody here take out your phone. Hashtag: Betty Reboot. We need a hashtag and tweet it out and then we’re going to get Hulu to buy at two-hour special.” Obviously, Ferrera was kidding, but when she spoke to another outlet years later, she was still enthusiastic.

In 2023, Ferrera chatted with Entertainment Tonight reporter Nischelle Turner at the Elle Women in Hollywood event, where Salma Hayek-Pinault was selected to honor Ferrera’s body of work and obviously mentioned “Ugly Betty.” When Turner asked about a potential reboot, Ferrera said, “I think there has been like a deep desire there for a long time because our ‘Ugly Betty’ family is so close and so we love each other so much. I think we’d all come back in a heartbeat.” Though she was realistic about the inherent difficulties, Ferrera remained optimistic: “It takes a lot of work to get a thing off the ground — maybe we’ll figure it out. Betty is my heart. I would be thrilled.”

Even though it sounds like America Ferrera really wants an “Ugly Betty” reboot, she’s right about one thing — it’s very, very tricky to pull one off years after the original show airs, mostly because it’s borderline impossible to get the cast in the same place again. For years, Ferrera starred on “Superstore,” and now she’s an Oscar nominee and producer with a number of projects in the pipeline. Michael Urie has somehow found the time to appear in every single TV show you’ve ever watched or heard of — from “Younger” to “Shrinking” to “Modern Family” — and perform on Broadway in big productions like “Spamalot” and “Once Upon a Mattress.” Vanessa Williams is starting her run as Miranda Priestly in the Broadway production of “Devil Wears Prada” in late 2024 (a perfect post-Wilhelmina Slater role, honestly). Does the “Ugly Betty” cast even have time?

Williams provided another — very understandable — explanation in 2021 while speaking with Entertainment Weekly; without their creative leader Silvio Horta, she didn’t feel it was right at all. “The concept would be great,” Williams said at the time. “Unfortunately, our creator-executive producer, Silvio Horta, died [in 2020] due to suicide, so I don’t know what the status of the rights are. We love each other, we keep in touch, but, who knows. At the moment, not at all [possible].”

“Ugly Betty” is a pretty great show if you didn’t watch it when it originally aired — or in the years since it ended — and thankfully, clips have been picking up traction on TikTok and drawing new audiences. So how can you watch it?

Luckily, “Ugly Betty” is available on both Hulu and Netflix, so you have choices if you’re trying to limit your streaming service subscriptions. If you really want to own the entire show, you can also buy it on VOD platforms like Prime Video, Google Play, and Apple TV. If you’re curious about the cast’s post-“Ugly Betty” projects, there’s always “Superstore,” literally any of the shows featuring Michael Urie in a recurring role (there are too many to list here), Vanessa Williams in her recurring role on the underrated Netflix gem “Girls5Eva,” or even Becki Newton’s run on “How I Met Your Mother.”

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