Ugly Betty season 3

The third season of the American comedy-drama television series Ugly Betty was confirmed by ABC on February 11, 2008. The season premiere aired on September 25, 2008, while the season ended with a special double episode on May 21, 2009.

In Australia, season 3 premiered on 3 November 2009, as one of the first exclusive premieres on the new digital channel 7TWO, after two years on the Seven Network. Season 3 premiered on Tuesday 13 January 2009 in South Africa and on Wednesday 24 June 2009 in the UK.

The season would be the first to be produced in the show's actual setting, New York City, in an attempt to take advantage of a credit change.

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

Main Cast

 * America Ferrera as Betty Suarez
 * Eric Mabius as Daniel Meade
 * Judith Light as Claire Meade
 * Vanessa L. Williams as Wilhelmina Slater
 * Becki Newton as Amanda Tanen
 * Ana Ortiz as Hilda Suarez
 * Ashley Jensen as Christina McKinney
 * Tony Plana as Ignacio Suarez
 * Michael Urie as Marc St. James
 * Mark Indelicato as Justin Suarez

Recurring Cast

 * Christine Baranski as Victoria Hartley
 * David Blue as Cliff St. Paul
 * Grant Bowler as Connor Owens
 * Julian de la Celle as Daniel Jr.
 * Eddie Cibrian as Coach Tony Diaz
 * Val Emmich as Jesse
 * Daniel Eric Gold as Matt Hartley
 * Christopher Gorham as Henry Grubstick
 * Sarah Lafleur as Molly
 * Lindsay Lohan as Kimberly ‘Kimmie’ Keegan
 * Ralph Macchio as Councilman Archie Rodriguez
 * Alec Mapa as Suzuki St. Pierre
 * Bernadette Peters as Jodie Papadakis
 * David Rasche as Calvin Hartley
 * Derek Riddell as Stuart
 * Rebecca Romijn as Alexis Meade
 * Lauren Vélez as Elena Sanchez

Guest cast

 * Nikki Blonsky as Teri O’Shoughnessy
 * Barry Bostwick as Roger Adams
 * Mark Consuelos as Det. Averaimo
 * Rachel Dratch as Penny Meadows & Mindy Meadows
 * Max Ehrich as Randy
 * Max Greenfield as Nick Pepper
 * Cheyenne Jackson as Timothy D’Artagnan
 * Mo Rocca as the Kitchen Rumble Host
 * Freddy Rodriguez as Giovanni ‘Gio’ Rossi
 * Steve Schirripa as Frankie Burrata
 * Michael Stuhlbarg as Heinrich
 * Heather Tom as Holly Wright

In addition, the season featured cameo appearances by Adele, Mark Badgley and James Mischka, Nigel Barker, Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Billie Jean King, Adriana Lima, Rachel Maddow, Isaac Mizrahi, Roberta Myers, Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, Zac Posen, Antonio Sabàto Jr., Liz Smith, Robert Verdi, and Joe Zee as themselves.

Music

 * ABC released a promotional video featuring the cast singing "New York, New York".
 * Australian singer Lenka made a music video of "The Show" showing never-before-seen footage from the third season of Ugly Betty.
 * The iTunes Store 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 by Lady Gaga titled "Fashion" 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
During production of season 2, the ideas for both a musical episode and a recurring guest role for Lindsay Lohan came up. Both ideas were put on hold due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike and in the end, only Lindsay Lohan's storyline came to fruition, with Lohan making a brief uncredited cameo appearance in the season two finale "Jump", before reprising the role in season 3.

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

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." 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." 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."

Casting changes
It was announced before the season aired that Rebecca Romijn would only be returning as a recurring character because of Romijn's dissatisfaction with the direction in which the writers had taken her character. It was speculated that the move was also, partially, due to Romijn's pregnancy, although TV Guide ' s Michael Ausiello reported that it might have been a ploy to ask for a salary increase.

Christopher Gorham (Henry Grubstick) revealed to TV Guide that "the show is moving, I am not." On July 11, 2008, TV Guide confirmed that Gorham and Freddy 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. 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."

Episodes
Notes:
 * ABC placed Ugly Betty on a temporary hiatus after the March 19, 2009 episode to air Samantha Who? and In the Motherhood in the 8-9PM E/P slot, but returned it after the shows complete their runs. Ugly Betty returned on April 30, 2009 to finish its 3rd season, ending with a 2-hour season finale airing on May 21, 2009.

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. Thirteen 5-minute episodes were produced.


 * 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. 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

UK ratings

 * Overnight ratings
 * 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.