The English version of the popular Colombian telenovela is about a homely but brainy woman who undergoes a cover-girl-like transformation. The show has received enough buzz to either jinx it before it can win a following or bless it with a built-in audience before its debut Sept. 28.

Either way, it will be muy interesante to see whether this import will prove mainstream enough to transcend demographics and create a U.S. appetite for a format that, contrary to Hollywood's bleed-it-till-it-dies mentality, has a defined course and ending.

In the USA, where daytime soaps can stretch out for decades and prime-time shows remain on the air until their ratings fall, Ugly Betty will break telenovela tradition by giving fans their story fix only once a week, rather than Monday through Friday.

It's no secret the sudden interest in telenovelas is part of a push by U.S. networks to recapture viewers who have been migrating to cable, the Internet and Spanish-language programming. ABC's major competitors have all embraced the telenovela genre, hoping to replicate the success of Univision, the leading Spanish-language network serving the USA.

But the telenovela audience might not be as large as the networks are hoping. A study by Encuesta, Inc., a Hispanic-American marketing and research company, found that though 43% of U.S. Hispanics watch drama series, soap operas or telenovelas at least once a week, 68% prefer watching news programs and political talk shows. The study also reveals that U.S.-born Hispanics are more likely than foreign-born Hispanics to watch sitcoms rather than telenovelas, soap operas or drama series. That's not what the networks want to hear.

Chances are the networks were looking at the Nielsen ratings and seeing that telenovelas are runaway hits among Hispanic viewers — on the Spanish-speaking Univision. But Nielsen admits that it doesn't know what the U.S.-born Latino representation is when measuring Hispanic viewership — and Nielsen isn't alone. In 2006, TNS Media Intelligence researchers forecast a 12.9% growth in Spanish-language media compared with 4.9% for all U.S. media. Yet, the findings don't measure the impact of the growing English-language Hispanic media.

Which leaves the million-dollar question of whether telenovelas will prove to be the Holy Grail in luring more viewers. One thing is certain, in true telenovela style, network executives can expect to experience a lot more angst before there's a happy ending.

Marisa Treviño is a freelance writer in Dallas.