Ugly Betty Ford?!

The other night, we were watching President Ford’s state funeral at the Capitol on ABC. When the funeral was over, after an hour of seeing former first lady Betty Ford moving through the rather rigid ceremony with dignity and grace, we suddenly see this flash up on the screen:


Who at ABC thought THAT was a good idea? It wasn’t “cut to commercial,” then a local news break, then a wrap-up from the funeral. Not even a cut to “This has been an ABC news special report” voice over. Instead, it was pretty much a final shot of Betty Ford being escorted from the rotunda, and then HUGE PINK WORDS that said “UGLY BETTY” for a LONG TIME. Like 5 or 8 seconds, longer than seemed necessary for any reason. Was I the only one who noticed this?

Networks re-program all the time depending on current events. Maybe moving Ugly Betty wasn’t necessary, but a little bit of a segue perhaps?