Thursday, September 28, 2006

Fall TV Top 5: Ugly Betty

Tonight is the night for the new series premiere I'm most excited for people to see: Ugly Betty on ABC.

There's a style, attitude and energy to this show that's like nothing else on TV. It's light, funny, immediately involving and features the actress who everyone has pegged as the season's breakout star: America Ferrera. And in her case it's not just empty hype.

I wrote a little about the show before (back when it was still called "Betty the Ugly," a literal translation of its original telenovela title) and I'm pleased that's it has received a good amount of pre-season attention. Pairing the show with monster hit Grey's Anatomy will hopefully work in Betty's favor (it's much better than the Friday timeslot the show originally was set for).

Hopefully there will be a backwards halo effect since Grey's didn't help lead-out Six Degrees much last week. Betty is a significantly better show and if it becomes a ratings success like the network's Lost and Desperate Housewives were in their first seasons it would be another victory for that all too rare breed: quality network television.

Hopefully it won't face the same sophomore slump as those shows, but I'm way ahead of myself there. Let's just get through the first season and hope we don't get a repeat performance of last season's ABC buzz series.

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