Before it was an ABC dramedy about a braces-wearing assistant at a fictional fashion magazine, the story that became Ugly Betty had already run once, in Spanish, for a year and a half in Colombia. Ugly Betty premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, adapting Fernando Gaitan’s telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea, which had aired on Colombian network RCN from October 1999 to May 2001 and gone on to become the first telenovela ever remade for television markets around the world. Twenty years after the American version launched, its actual awards haul is the part that tends to slip people’s minds — not because it was thin, but because the show itself gets remembered more for its look than its trophy case.

What it actually won

The trophy case wasn’t small. At the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2007, Ugly Betty won three awards in a single ceremony: Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series, Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for its pilot episode, and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for America Ferrera. Three wins in one Emmy cycle, for a freshman network dramedy, is a genuinely strong showing — the kind of sweep usually reserved for shows well into their established runs rather than ones still finishing their first season.

The Golden Globes recognized it even faster. On January 15, 2007, barely three and a half months after the show’s premiere, Ugly Betty won Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy for Ferrera, giving the show a Golden Globe and an eventual Emmy in the same lead-actress category within one awards season of existing.

An adaptation of an adaptation-magnet

Ugly Betty’s source material was already an unusual case before ABC ever optioned it. Yo soy Betty, la fea wasn’t just a hit in Colombia — it became, by wide industry consensus, the first telenovela to be formally remade across multiple countries rather than simply exported and dubbed, spawning distinct local adaptations across Latin America, Europe, and Asia in addition to the American version developed by Silvio Horta with Salma Hayek’s production company attached. The property had already proven, before a single English-language script existed, that its premise — an unglamorous protagonist succeeding in a world built entirely around glamour — translated across wildly different television markets.

Twenty years, one underrated fact

What’s easy to lose track of two decades later is how quickly the American version validated that bet. A show doesn’t usually collect three competitive Emmys and two Golden Globes inside its first calendar year unless the writing, casting, and central performance are all landing at once — and Ugly Betty managed all three in the same awards season it was still finding its footing creatively. The show ran for four seasons total, but the specific run of hardware from its 2006-2007 debut year remains the strongest evidence that its early reputation wasn’t hype: a translated telenovela premise, dressed up as an ABC dramedy, walked into its first Emmys and Golden Globes and simply won.