Ugly Betty (season 3)

The third season of the American dramedy television series Ugly Betty was confirmed in the ABC lineup, which was picked up for a full season on February 11, 2008.^[1] The season premiere aired on September 25, 2008 and ended with a special double-episode on May 21, 2009.

In Australia, Season 3 premiered on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 7:30 pm EDT. This took place as one of the first exclusive premieres on the new digital channel 7TWO, after over two years of erratic screening of the first two seasons on the Seven Network. In South Africa, Season 3 premiered on Tuesday January 13, 2009 in its normal 7:30.P.M CAT timeslot. Season 3 premiered in the UK on Channel 4 on Wednesday June 24, 2009 in the 10:00.P.M. slot, after Big Brother. It changed from Wednesdays to Mondays from Monday October 12, 2009. Episodes finished airing December 2, 2009.

The season would be the first to be produced in the show's setting, New York City in an attempt to take advantage of a credit change. However, the move would have side-effects as several cast and crew members prefer to stay in Los Angeles where the first two seasons were produced which resulted in contributing less onto the show. For example, Ashley Jensen, who plays Christina McKinney, opted to stay in Los Angeles and eventually left the show.

Cast

Most of the main cast from the show's second season returned for the third season, with the former main characters Alexis Meade (played by Rebecca Romijn) and Henry Grubstick (played by Christopher Gorham), becoming recurring characters.

Music

• ABC released a promotional video featuring the cast singing "New York, New York".
• Australian songstress Lenka made a music video of "The Show" showing never before seen footage from the third season of Ugly Betty.
• iTunes provided a free music download of both of these features.
• At the end of episode 3, Two of Cups's "Breathe" was played
• In episode 10, "Bad Amanda", an unreleased track titled "Fashion" by Lady Gaga can be heard.
• In the episode, "When Betty Met YETI", Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" can be heard.
• In the episode "Curveball", another Lady Gaga song, "The Fame", can be heard.

Production

Plans for a musical episode and having Lindsay Lohan on board for a storyline were plans for the third season.^[2] The two proposed ideas were already in the planning stages during the second season, but were put on hold due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. However, only Lindsay Lohan's storyline came to fruition. (The episode "Granny Pants" involved a plot about a musical, but was not a musical episode.) Despite appearing uncredited in the season two finale "Jump", Lohan appeared (credited) in the episodes "The Manhattan Project", "Granny Pants" and "Ugly Berry".

Shooting of the episodes moved from Los Angeles to on location shooting in New York City, where the show is set.^[3] The last time the show was shot in New York was in the pilot episode.^[4] In addition, the season had more physical elements, especially for Betty.^[5]

Plot

In this season, Betty decides to move on from Henry and Gio, and after a cross-country trip around the United States, decides to move out of Casa Suarez and into an apartment of her own, hoping that this will help her advance in her quest to move up in the publishing business. Betty also attracts the interest of a musician named Jesse who is living in the apartment across from hers. In addition, she buries the hatchet with Kimberly "Kimmie" Keegan, her childhood nemesis and manager of Flushing Burger, where Ignacio works. Unfortunately, the truce between Betty and Kimmie would be broken after Betty helped Kimmie land a job at Mode and Kimmie reverted to her old patronizing ways after being promoted to associate editor. This promotion would also infuriate Amanda and Marc after Kimmie befriended and then turned on them. But it would be Wilhelmina who would fire Kimmie after she insulted her during a photo shoot with model Adriana Lima as planned by Marc, Amanda, and Betty.

After his ouster from Mode, Daniel was demoted to Editor-in-Chief of Player magazine, after Alexis decided to bring back Wilhelmina as Editor-in-Chief. Daniel then takes the decision to fight for custody of his son Daniel Jr., and for his job at Mode, which he takes back from Wilhelmina, whose sudden rise to the top and her means to lure Betty into her world - by offering her the job of her assistant - in her attempt to mold her. Of course, this doesn't last and when Betty helps Daniel to get his job back, she becomes his assistant again. Adding to Wilhelmina's downfall was Marc, whose jealousy over being passed over by Wilhelmina after she lured Betty back to Mode, became a move that prompted Marc to set his boss' downfall in motion, allowing him to get his job back. In addition, Claire stepped in to stop Wilhelmina from using the family and also to get Hot Flash ready.

Hilda continued to see Tony, who was still married, and when Ignacio found out, it caused a rift between the two. Unfortunately, thanks to his wife, Hilda ends the affair after talking to his wife who mistook her for the "other woman" (Betty). Meanwhile, Justin is getting ready to break into show business on Broadway, in what is said to be a "musical episode".

Christina is dealing with Stuart's drug problems and her pregnancy with the unborn Meade baby, which in turn would take a turn for the worse after she is pushed down a flight of stairs. Daniel is framed for it and Betty decides to prove he is being wrongly accused. After using some help from Marc and Amanda, they find out Daniel's sister pushed Christina. Alexis turns herself in afterwards. While in jail, Alexis reveals to Daniel that a paternity test for Daniel Jr. revealed that he is not the father. Alexis is the father, since she slept with DJ's mother when still being a man. As a result of this revelation, Daniel Jr's grandparents get custody of the boy.

In the meantime, Wilhelmina puts pressure on Alexis to give up her complete control of the Meade company, in exchange for Wilhelmina's help in getting Alexis' charges dropped. In the end, a compromise is reached, and control of the company is divided equally between Wilhelmina (in actuality, the unborn baby gets the share) and Daniel. The two become co-owners and co-editors of the publishing empire. This means Wilhelmina only has 50% to go until she controls the whole empire by herself. The baby, William Slater-Meade, was born during "Fashion Week 2009" in the middle of the catwalk. The question of Will's birthright also becomes an issue, after Christina starts bonding with the boy. Unfortunately, Baby Will in fact turns out to be Christina and Stuart's son, and after some convincing from Betty, Wilhelmina hands the boy over to the McKinneys, who then tell Betty that they were moving back to Scotland to start a new life and for Christina, a new fashion business.

Amanda continues the quest to find her father and also moves in with Betty when her spending spirals out of control and her credit card bills skyrocket. Her financial problems would result in Amanda taking on a second job at a pizza parlor in an effort to pay off her debts. Together they plan a "Mode Afterparty". Betty invites Jesse and his band to perform, and he agrees. At the party, he has a sudden case of stage-fright, which Betty helps him overcome. However, after Betty catches Jesse kissing Amanda and later finds him to be boring, Betty gives up on him. She also moves out of the apartment and sublets it to Marc.

As Betty returns home, she finds herself and her family deal with Ignacio's heart attack and a new love interest (his nurse) Elena; Hilda's falling for New York City Councilman Archie Rodriguez, who wanted Hilda to apply for a license to operate her beauty shop and Justin's befriending—and rejection—of a bully named Randy. Ignacio later gets a new job at a restaurant owned by TV chef Frankie Burrata, whom Ignacio would challenge on his cooking show "Kitchen Rumble."

In the meantime, Wilhelmina falls in love with the new associate and Daniel's friend and business partner Connor Owens, who turns out to be an embezzler after Betty discovers that he has been transferring money from the company to his own bank account. Surprisingly enough, Daniel would fall for Connor's fiancee Molly, a schoolteacher who later reveals to Daniel that she has cancer. Daniel and Molly marry before she dies.

Marc is invited to move in with Cliff, but he can't make up his mind and rejects the offer. This causes Marc to fret, and in the process would lead to a one-night stand with a guy he met at Betty's rooftop party. Marc then shocks Cliff with a wedding proposal, but would later confess the one-night stand to Cliff and the two break up.

Betty and Marc participate in the Young Editors Training Initiative (YETI) program. During the course, the two must deal with Jodi Papadakis (Bernadette Peters), their professor who wants results from her students. However, it is revealed that Jodi has the hots for gay guys (she tries to flirt with Marc) and costs Betty the opportunity of an editor's job ... by taking the position herself. Upon graduating, she and Marc fight over the chance to replace the late Penny Meadows as features editor at Mode. Thanks to a coin toss by Daniel and Wilhelmina, Betty wins the job, leaving Marc devastated.

Still, nothing compared to Betty meeting a rival from Elle, Terri O'Shausseney (Nikki Blonsky), who succeeded by stealing a cover story idea from Mode. Then, Betty falls for aspiring sports reporter Matt Hartley, whom Betty discovers to actually stem from a wealthy family. Matt by the way tried to resist Betty because he had a sex addiction and was seeing a psychiatrist for treatment, then used his influence to bail out Betty's family. The two would later start dating but the friction between the two redefines itself when Henry returns. Matt thought Betty was over Henry, but after he saw the two kissing (for the last time before Henry left for good), Matt tells Betty it's over, and on top of that, reveals to her that he's going to be her new boss.

Speaking of the Hartleys, Matt's mother Victoria doesn't like Betty and would love to see them apart, while her estranged husband Calvin jumps in to rescue Meade Publications but buys along with it a secret past involving his affair with Claire (whom Victoria also has a dislike for) that produced an offspring that was supposed to have been aborted, only to be revealed that Claire actually had the baby and put their son up for adoption.

Finally, the truth about "Fashion Buzz" presenter Suzuki St. Pierre would be discovered by Betty and Daniel after a trip to New Jersey where they discover that Suzuki (whose viewers thought him to be gay) lives as Byron Wu, a straight guy who's married with two sons. It turns out that Byron used the Suzuki alter ego because he could not find work as a serious journalist. Both Betty and Daniel agree not to expose him.

As the series continues, we see Betty and Matt's relationship grow as Betty meets his mother who is not too fond of Betty. We later learn that Matt has had impulsive sexual issues and had slept with several women over the years to counteract his loneliness. It isn't until Betty that he finds someone he truly loves for the first time. Meanwhile, things at Mode are not going well. Connor stole the company's money and took off. Daniel decides to avoid layoffs and cut backs by liquidating his assets as does Wilhelmina eventually. The company, however, continues to slide downhill and eventually people get fired (like Amanda). It isn't until Betty and Daniel see inspiration in the form of Matt's father, Cal Hartley who is interested in helping struggling publications.

While things are gradually improving for Mode, Wilhelmina soon becomes invested in discovering the true identity of "her" baby, Will. She is concerned that the baby was actually Christina's hence the lack of resemblance with Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina quickly learns that the child is not hers but to keep her stake at the Meade empire, she fakes a DNA test. Christina is shocked and does not believe Wilhelmina. She ends up stealing baby Will. Eventually, Wilhelmina admits the child is not her own but only does it to show Cal the power she has and therefore is not fired from Meade once Cal signs the contracts. As a result, however, Christina and Stuart along with their child decide to return to Scotland to have the child closer to family (Note: this was done due to Ashley Jensen's desire to leave the show due to the move to New York and the complications that arose from this decision).

The situation of Meade becomes relaxed when Daniel decides to make Molly's dreams come true by marrying her. Also, Ignacio decides to take his relationship with Elena to the next level. However, once a job opportunity arises for her, Ignacio decides to let her go to follow her dreams.

At YETI, Betty and Marc have their final interviews and wait for job call backs. Marc is offered a job at Vogue after he calls them to rethink their decision of initially rejecting him. As Betty gets an offer to the New York Review, Henry creeps back into her life as well as an offer from Matt to move in together. Betty, unable to hide her past with Henry, is seen kissing him off goodbye by Matt. Betty's New York Review job ends up being taken by Jodie in a surprising twist.

Claire takes up the position of Senior Vice President to Wilhelmina's discontent. Wilhelmina decides to ruin Claire's reputation. Wilhelmina learns that Victoria Hartley despises Claire and seeks information. Willie learns that Claire had an affair with Victoria's ex-husband Cal which resulted in an offspring. When confronted with the accusation, Claire tells Wilhelmina that she decided to abort the child but had to take a year off to deal with the emotional trauma. Wilhelmina asks Claire to resign her position as Senior VP in exchange for keeping her discretion.

In the finale episode, we see a struggling and sick Molly fighting for her life as Daniel is nominated for a Mama Award for the Wedding Issue. As the features editor of Mode dies, Betty and Marc fight for the vacant position and ask Daniel and Wilhelmina to ultimately decide who gets the position. Meanwhile, Matt confronts Betty about kissing Henry and their relationship comes to a halt.

The final few moments of the finale involve Mode winning the Mama Award for the Wedding Issue where Daniel makes a speech and sees Molly standing behind Betty. He tells her he loves her. Once off the stage, Betty congratulates Daniel but says she did not see Molly at all. We also see that Betty is eventually hired as the features editor, not Marc. This was decided over a coin-toss since Daniel and Wilhelmina both decided they were equally qualified. As Betty is getting her new office ready, Matt enters and the couple splits up. Matt reveals that he will be Betty's new boss since his father offered him a new position at Mode.

Wilhelmina's position at Meade is being threatened when Cal and Claire both agree that their past is none of Wilhelmina's business. Desperate, we see Wilhelmina taking to a privately hired hitman whom she asks to find Connor in order to get the money back and push Cal out with that money. As Wilhelmina leaves the meeting with the hitman, she enters a room in her house, drops her glass and exclaims "What are you doing here?" to an unknown character.

We also see Claire burning an adoption notice meaning Claire in fact did have the child and lied to Wilhelmina about the abortion. Daniel returns home only to find Molly dead and being carried out into an ambulance. Heart-broken and upset, he calls his friend, Betty, for support. The show ends with the two hugging over Molly's death.

Proposed storylines

Other proposed storyline hints before the season aired, in addition to the ones mentioned already, included Amanda's past and her continued search for her father and more romantic action for Marc and Cliff.^[6]

In an interview about the new direction the series would be taking, Silvio Horta told E!'s Kristin Dos Santos at an ABC press meeting for its show runners, "This season is going to be about growing up. We aren't going to be doing anymore child-like storylines. It is going to be about moving Betty forward."^[7] He then added more details to MediaWeek about the changes: "On Ugly Betty I think we started to veer a little too much into the romantic storyline, where it started to really become the show. And it started to just get away from what I originally wanted to do and where we originally started, which was about a girl making it in the city and her work life. So we're trying to refocus that back. But there's always temptation and you want to explore it. You want to have the opportunity to explore it. And the second you start getting too involved in it, it's like any plot line. You go in; it's very hard to get out and it takes a little longer."^[8] He later revealed that the audience would see a more evolving Betty: "Betty will solve a crime. Inject Botox. Get attacked by an animal. Throw a Wilhelmina mannequin down a flight of stairs. And that's just the first three episodes."^[9]

Casting changes

It was announced before the season aired that Rebecca Romijn's character of Alexis Meade, Daniel's male-to-female transsexual sister, would be demoted to a recurring character because of Romijn's dissatisfaction with the direction the writers had taken her character.^[10] It was speculated that this was in part due to Romijn's then-impending pregnancy. There was also speculation that the move might also have resulted in another regular opting to stay in California because of family and/or other personal commitments, although TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reported that it might be a ploy to ask for a salary increase.^[11]

The season opener featured Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa making a cameo in which Wilhelmina and Alexis appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly, which in turn comes on the heels of Ripa's husband Mark Consuelos having signed up for a multi-episode run in which he played a police detective.^[12] Ralph Macchio had a recurring stint beyond his appearance in the fifth episode, where he played a city official.^[13] Also, Nikki Blonsky signed on for a guest stint that aired on January 8, 2009.^[14]

Christopher Gorham (Henry Grubstick) revealed to TV Guide, in his own words, "The show is moving, I am not."^[15] But several days later after Gorham made those comments, TV Guide's Matt Webb, in his video blog, said that he had a different version of the story coming from ABC, which claimed that Gorham would still be part of the cast.^[16] On July 11, 2008, TV Guide confirmed that Gorham and Rodriguez would be moving on from Betty as the two actors would be making their last appearances due to other commitments, especially Gorham, who began working on CBS' Harper's Island.^[17] However, in a Q&A submitted to Ausiello at his webpage at Entertainment Weekly, he asked Ferrera about the absence of the two actors after they were no-shows at the Season 3 premiere party in New York City on September 12, 2008: "Betty's decision at the beginning of this season is not an ending to anything," Ferrera insisted. "It's more about huge beginnings for her. Christopher [Gorham], who we love and adore, and Freddy [Rodriguez], who is wonderful and so great on our show, are not gone [forever]. You'll never know when they'll pop in or pop out, but they'll be around."^[18]

Episodes

Webisodes

For the third season, a spin-off online series called Mode After Hours accompanied the main series. The program followed Marc St. James (Michael Urie) and Amanda Tanen (Becki Newton) having fun around the Mode offices when they were not working.^[21][22] There are thirteen lasting 5 minutes in length. Here are the scheduled listings:

• September 23, "Guadalaharahh" - Amanda and Marc make fun of Betty and Daniel respectively
• September 25, "Friend-iversary VLOG" - It is the "friend-iversary" of when Marc first met Amanda, but Amanda completely forgot about it
• October 9, "Bowling for Cliff" - Amanda teaches Marc how to bowl before his bowling date with Cliff
• October 16, "Slumber Party Secrets" - Amanda and Marc sleep at Mode, and share some of their secrets.
• October 23, "Sommers Seance" - Marc and Amanda organize a seance trying to contact her dead mother Fey
• October 30, "Trapped in the Elevator" - Amanda and Marc get locked in the Mode elevator and share their darkest secrets.
• October 30, Behind the Scenes Extras and Making of Mode After Hours
• March 19, "Big Package" - Marc and Amanda have their own Christmas with unopened and undelivered office package.
• March 23, "April Fools" - Marc and Amanda think of clever ways to trick Betty on April Fools.
• March 30, "Roller Girlz" - Marc teaches Amanda how to skate in order to lose weight.
• April 8, "Breaking the Band" - Marc and Amanda compete to sing at a local karaoke bar.
• April 16, "London Calling" - Marc and Amanda call the Mode UK office for a YETI assignment and end up finding their British counterparts.
• April 23, "When Marc Met Mandy" - Marc and Amanda flash back to the first time they ever met.
• April 27, "I Spy" - Marc cancels dinner plans with Amanda to spy on his crush, Jake.

DVD release

On March 13, 2009 Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment announced that the release date of Ugly Betty Season Three, subtitled "Start Spreading the News", would be September 22, 2009 in the United States and Canada. All 24 episodes were included in the set, along with additional "Betty Bloopers", alternative takes, deleted scenes and a featurette, "Coming Home to New York City", detailing the show's return to the Big Apple after having filmed the pilot there.^[23]

Among the features:

• Audio Commentary
• Look Who Keeps Popping Up
• Coming Home to New York City
• Mode After Hours - Webisodes
  • "Gwadalaharahh"
  • "The Friend-iversary VLOG"
  • "Bowling for Cliff"
  • "Slumber Party Secrets"
  • "Sommers Seance"
  • "Trapped in the Elevator"
  • "I Spy"
  • "Pank Calls"
• Deleted Scenes
• Betty Bloops

Episodes

UK ratings

• ^* Overnight ratings
• ^a Ranks are for Channel 4 and E4 weekly, not for overall TV.
• Note: Season 3 of Ugly Betty episodes have now started airing on Wednesday nights on Channel 4 at 10:00 pm instead of the normal Friday night 9:00 pm airing and because of this the E4 first look airing has been moved from Wednesday nights to Tuesday nights. Ugly Betty episodes will not affect or be affected by Big Brother shows/evictions.
• Note: As of Monday 12, October 2009 Channel 4's airing of Ugly Betty will now be shown on Monday evenings at the normal time of 10:00 pm instead of Wednesday evenings.

References