Ugly Betty "The Butterfly Effect"

Ugly Betty returned with a two-hour season premiere that found Betty adapting to life in her role as an associate features editor at Mode and having to work with ex-boyfriend Matt Hartley. As always, Claire’s role as Betty’s mentor grounded the episode, on a show that spends so much time in the land of over the top hijinks. Even though the changes were subtle, Betty “grew up” in this episode, realizing that her life had changed.

Daniel returned to Mode, still mourning the death of his wife. Wilhelmina helped her daughter (Yaya Dacosta) cover up a murder and saved a fashion shoot from disaster. Justin went to Marc for advice, after being bullied in school. Meanwhile, Marc's anger at Betty for getting the job as editor manifested itself in the form of a blog making fun of her fashion sense. Amanda realized she wanted more in life than remaining a receptionist, after seeing what happened to guest Kristen Johnston as Helen, a washed up former receptionist.

With the move to Friday, how will Ugly Betty’s ratings hold up? In recent years, Fridays have become the night to which networks, except CBS, move scripted programming to put them on life support. If Ugly Betty’s viewership follows it to Friday, might it provide a cornerstone for a strong line up? If it doesn’t, how long will it be before we begin hearing whispers of the ratings not being enough to rationalize the cost of production? Hopefully its Friday ratings are huge and we won’t have to worry about the survival of this guilty pleasure.

What did you think of the season premiere of Ugly Betty?

UPDATE: The ratings are in for the season premiere of Ugly Betty and they aren't good. According to The Live Feed:

The two-hour return of ABC's "Ugly Betty" drew 5.1 million viewers and a 1.4 preliminary adults 18-49 rating.

That's matching the premiere of "Supernanny" in the slot last year, and down 58% from the show's previous Thursday debut (in the time period "FlashForward" has since co-opted). ABC points out the drama performed slightly better -- 16% -- than its October average last year among total viewers, for whatever that's worth.