LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- ABC has pulled the plug on "Ugly Betty" after four seasons.

"We've mutually come to the difficult decision to make this Ugly Betty's final season, and are announcing now as we want to allow the show ample time to write a satisfying conclusion," the network and producers said in a joint statement. "We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking series, and felt it was important to give the fans a proper farewell."

The news doesn't come as much of a surprise as "Betty" has averaged a modest 4.72 million viewers and a 1.6 rating among adults 18-49 since taking over the Wednesday, 10:00/9:00c hour earlier this month. While an improvement from its Friday, 9:00/8:00c audience (4.53 million, 1.2 rating among adults 18-49), the series nevertheless fell short of previous time period holder "Eastwick's" average (5.00 million, 1.7 rating among adults 18-49).

ABC still has eight episodes left to air of the series, which is expected to wrap in April. The Alphabet originally committed to 22 episodes for its fourth season, which has now been dialed back to 20.

Ben Silverman, Teri Weinberg, Sheila Lawrence, Henry Alonso Myers, Tracy Poust, Jon Kinnally, Victor Nelli, Jr., Richard Heus, Salma Hayek, Jose Tamez and Silvio Horta are the executive producers of the series, which comes from ABC Studios.