There must have been something in the creative ether in 2006. That year saw not only the release of The Devil Wears Prada, but also the premiere of ABC’s Ugly Betty, which both center on a young, intelligent, fashion-challenged woman following her journalistic dreams by becoming an assistant at a New York fashion magazine. The similarities even extend to the use of KT Tunstall’s catchy “Suddenly I See.”
But Ugly Betty, which starred America Ferrera and would run for four seasons, brought a distinct point of view that was ahead of its time for network TV. Executive produced by Salma Hayek, it was arguably the first U.S. series adapted from a telenovela (Colombia’s Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, or I Am Betty, the Ugly One). It immediately struck a chord, averaging 14.8 million viewers in its first three weeks, second in its time slot only to Survivor.
Ferrara, who previously starred in Real Women Have Curves (2002) and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005), charmed critics too, with THR‘s review proclaiming, “If you don’t find yourself cheering for sweet, hard-working, slightly naïve but tenacious Betty … you deserve a high standing on some heart transplant list.” The show’s name aside, Ferrera explained that she didn’t view her character as ugly. “That’s really the joke of it,” she told THR. “If Betty looked the way she looked and had this ‘Woe’s me’ attitude, I have to believe people would never want to watch. We cheer for her because she never wallows in self-pity.”
When Ferrera went on to win the 2007 Emmy for lead actress in a comedy series — the first Latina to win the category — director Richard Shepard, who also won for Ugly Betty that night, said, “It has to be [Ferrera] or there is no show, because she’s real. And because she’s real, all the silliness around her sort of makes sense.”
