Audiences

‘Ugly Betty’s target audience is mainly young females, as Betty is the main character so all the females can identify with her. It is also aimed to attract ethnic minorities because Betty herself is Latino and there is an increase in Latino’s in America. As the text deals with issues such as sexuality, image etc Ugly Betty is also shown to attract teenagers but its primary target audience is young women because females are considered to be more engaged with fashion and are more image obsessed, which is what the show is about.

‘Ugly Betty’ is scheduled to be shown on channel 4 at 9pm on Friday nights, the assumption is made that the audience will be back from school or work and will be relaxing at this time- so will tune in to watch this show. The show appears at after water-shed hour which goes to show that it is not suitable for younger audiences. ‘Ugly Betty’ is also shown on the weekends (on T4) around 1ish- which is a catch up for people who missed it on Friday. This shows that the fact that the audience has a social life is taken into consideration- as the audience that goes out on Friday night get to see the program on the weekend when they have a lie-in.

It can be assumed that the show is very popular as it must have been very successful in America for it to be aired in the UK. As there are a variety of characters and issues, this program probably attracts as many people as ‘Desperate Housewives’ (which has been a great success) if not more. Furthermore, it can be predicted that series 3 will attract even more viewers than series 2 due to the star appearance of Victoria Beckham (playing the role of a bridesmaid).

The audiences are likely to view the text as fun and light-hearted with serious issues. They are likely to perceive Betty as a warm and caring character compared to the rest. They will also view the business world as harsh and brutal where survival of the fittest is defiantly the case. The female audiences are also likely to see Betty as a role model as most females can identify with her at one point or another.


I think that ‘Ugly Betty’ is a really good text and think it deals with much serious issues as well as keeping us entertained. The fact that there is much diversity in ‘Ugly Betty’ of different types of people – (e.g. Marc is gay, Betty is Latino), is important as it reflects the zeitgeist- as we live in a modern society where there is less social stigma attached to being gay etc. Despite this, even though Betty is supposedly ugly (which is the view of a passive audience), it can be argued that in fact she looks just like an average person, and that she is not that ugly. Moreover, America Ferrera is not ugly yet she is not the conventional beauty either. It can be argued that Betty represents an average woman and is more real than all the other characters- but she is not as ugly as she’s made out to be.