Ugly Betty Put On Time Out

Say it ain't so, America!

ABC moves Betty to the backseat.

Poor Betty. First, her Papi has a heart attack. Then, she and Hilda get in a nasty fight. Then, she has to move out of her single-girl-in-the-city apartment and back to Queens to help take care of her family. And now, she's being forced to take a backseat to Christina Applegate.

ABC has announced that it's making some tweaks to its Thursday lineup. Hoping to compete with NBC's Comedy Night, the network is putting Ugly Betty on a time out. Beginning on March 26, Betty will be replaced by Samantha Who? and the new Megan Mullally-Cheryl Hines comedy In the Motherhood.

ABC says that Betty will complete its season following the run of In the Motherhood and Samantha Who? - best estimates are that Betty would return sometime around June. But the alphabet folks aren't giving any definite dates.

Honestly, this all sounds rather dreary. While this season hasn't been Ugly Betty's best, the show is still one of ABC's standout programs. To just shove it off into no-man's-land until June (at best) and never (at worst) seems rather callous to us.

Where's Wilhelmina when you need her to kick some rump and take some names?