International hit “Ugly Betty” is coming to ABC this fall—courtesy of Salma Hayek and friends.

One of the biggest hit television series in history – known as “Yo Soy Betty La Fea” (“I Am Betty the Ugly”) in its original Colombian incarnation and on Telemundo, “Falling in Love in Berlin” in Germany, “Lotte” in the Netherlands, “Born Ugly” in Russia, and even “Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin” (“There’s No One Like Jassi”) in India’is coming to the U.S. in the fall, set to air Fridays beginning September 22.

“Betty” will compete head-to-head with NBC’s popular crime drama “Crossing Jordan,” but producers, including Salma Hayek, are confident the show will be a hit. “The American audience are very thirsty for something like this and they’re just going to love it,” says Ms.Hayek. “It’s causing – I already know this for a fact – a lot of excitement in the Latin community,” she continues. “They will definitely not be able to get enough of Betty.”

The show has been tinkered with in its various international incarnations, but Ms. Hayek and others involved are creating an English-language series that stays truer to the original hit Colombian telenovela. For American audiences, however, Betty (as played by America Ferrera) will be a bit less ugly and younger, and will work for a fashion magazine instead of the original fashion design house.

According to ABC, the show involves the superficial world of high fashion where image is everything. Styles come and go, and the only constants are the superthin beauties who wear them. Into this mix is thrown Betty, a slightly plump plain Jane from Queens who is trying to fit in.