diff --git a/data/interfaces/default/comingEpisodes.tmpl b/data/interfaces/default/comingEpisodes.tmpl
index da74c796f5878c9da884a2929aa7d9bbc6a97fce..bb6d78ccf701681e39d6fc311dadb0b09a7070ad 100644
--- a/data/interfaces/default/comingEpisodes.tmpl
+++ b/data/interfaces/default/comingEpisodes.tmpl
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ Custom
                     #set $show_div = "ep_listing listing_toofar"
                     #set $too_late_header = True
                 #elif $cur_ep_airdate >= $today and $cur_ep_airdate < $next_week:
-                    <br /><h1 class="day">$datetime.date.fromordinal($cur_ep_airdate).strftime("%A").decode('utf-8')</h1>
+                    <br /><h1 class="day">$datetime.date.fromordinal($cur_ep_airdate).strftime("%A")</h1>
                     #if $cur_ep_airdate == $today:
                         #set $show_div = "ep_listing listing_current"
                     #else:
diff --git a/data/interfaces/default/inc_bottom.tmpl b/data/interfaces/default/inc_bottom.tmpl
index ae53a8963178c1a4e227fd348477d0b20bdd3eb3..5373b5fceb5c7acbcb4d9fe5b53054264d7e69d6 100644
--- a/data/interfaces/default/inc_bottom.tmpl
+++ b/data/interfaces/default/inc_bottom.tmpl
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 <br />
 <b>Search</b>: <%=str(sickbeard.currentSearchScheduler.timeLeft()).split('.')[0]%> |
 <!--<b>Update</b>: <a%a=str(sickbeard.updateScheduler.timeLeft()).split('.')[0]%> | -->
-<b>Backlog</b>: $sickbeard.backlogSearchScheduler.nextRun().strftime("%a %b %d").decode('utf-8') <br />
+<b>Backlog</b>: $sickbeard.backlogSearchScheduler.nextRun().strftime("%a %b %d") <br />
 </div>
 </body>
 </html>
diff --git a/sickbeard/webserve.py b/sickbeard/webserve.py
index 9c5d143f0d74ac7a1a63c4155a957037b703bfce..8b625bd65b79de1d25ab0c207267c1a497b12955 100644
--- a/sickbeard/webserve.py
+++ b/sickbeard/webserve.py
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ class TVDBWebUI:
         redirect("/home/addShows/addShow?" + showDirList + "seriesList=" + searchList)
 
 def _munge(string):
-    return unicode(string).encode('ascii', 'xmlcharrefreplace')
+    return unicode(string).encode('utf-8', 'xmlcharrefreplace')
 
 def _genericMessage(subject, message):
     t = PageTemplate(file="genericMessage.tmpl")