2010, The Year Of The TV Gays

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2010: The Year Gay TV Grew Up

Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on December 20, 2010

Virtually unnoticed by the mainstream media has been the return of the gay talk show host. Not all of have done as well as past and current lesbian leaders like Rosie, Ellen and Sara Gilbert. But they are proving the gay guys can chat just as well as the gals.

Nate Berkus’ Oprah-sanctioned show may be ratings-challenged, but the interior designer has been experimenting with a new format, connecting issues of design to universal personal and romantic struggles.

Nate Berkus & Andy Cohen

On cable, we saw the rising popularity of Bravo super-exec Andy Cohen, whose late-night kaffeeklatsch has attracted so much attention online and on-air that it is now five times a week. British TV mainstay Graham Norton has seen continuing success with his talk show, nabbing bigger stars promoting films and albums in the UK.

The brilliant Alec Mapa, so hilarious during his View guest spots that he incited rumors of a Barbara Walters-produced gig, charmed in Logo’s The Gossip Queens. Even better, the same network brought us 1 Girl, 5 Gays, a gabfest on all things gay.

Sean Hayes too resurfaced this year, hosting the Tony’s after coming out in The Advocate and performing in his Broadway show, Promises, Promises. Hayes won solid reviews for his hosting gig, owning the stage with his confidence, a welcome contrast to seven years prior when he evaded coming out while presenting at the GLAAD Awards.

Marketers and producers are catching the gay talk show buzz. Carson Kressley is getting a show on Oprah’s highly anticipated new network, OWN, debuting in January and gay-friendly anchor Anderson Cooper’s talk show has already nabbed distribution in the top TV markets.

Competitive reality shows have been a good place for the gays ever since Richard Hatch won the first Survivor and this year proved to be a strong one as well. Jordan Pious and his straight brother Dan won The Amazing Race in May while Yigit Pura became the first gay chef to win a Top Chef crown as he walked away with the top spot in Top Chef Just Desserts. Meanwhile, many folks felt Mondo Guerra was robbed of the title over on Project Runway.

This year, out gay actors, not just comedians and journalists, managed to work. Despite the controversy incited by Ramin Setoodeh’s essay on gay actors who supposedly can’t play straight, plenty of out actors got roles. Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Chris Colfer led a pack of out actors who got to play gay, including Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie and Brothers & Sisters’ Luke Macfarlane, each doing stage work in addition to their TV gigs.

Parvesh Cheena on Outsourced

At the same time, gay actors have been playing straight on our televisions as well. Cheyenne Jackson’s Danny on 30 Rock sexed up Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon, Jonathan Groff wooed Glee’s Rachel Berry while Outsourced's Parvesh Cheena became the first out Indian American on U.S. television. And of course we can’t forget Neil Patrick Harris, whose lady-loving lothario on How I Met Your Mother has kept the show at the top of the network’s list of hits.

In a more understated role, we had British thespian Alan Cumming’s turn as a campaign manager on The Good Wife who is deliciously cold and calculating.

With all these actors scoring roles, it is easy to see why the “gay actor” controversy blew up. The blogosphere ignited against Newsweek’s Setoodeh after he penned an article listing a number of gay actors who couldn’t play straight and speculating whether these actors could ever do so. On the top of his list were Groff and Hayes.

The article set off a torrent of outrage, playing out on Twitter, blogs and even TV, when Setoodeh appeared on Joy “Lover of All Gays” Behar’s show to debate Dan Savage. Judging from the reactions by Cheyenne Jackson, Ryan Murphy, not to mention allies like Kristin Chenoweth, Setoodeh convinced almost no one.

Speaking of Dan Savage, he was everywhere this year! Every time you switched on cable news, there was Savage speaking eloquently on gay rights.

Dan Savage

The ever-popular sex columnist got even more so with his remarkable “It Gets Better” campaign, which flooded the web and airwaves this fall. Responding to a reported spike in suicides from bullied gay young people, Savage stirred politician and stars from film and TV to action.

Anderson Cooper, nominated this year by GLAAD for reporting on bullying back in 2009, arose as a clear champion of bullied gay youth. Cooper diligently reported on the ludicrous harassment of a University of Michigan student, Chris Armstrong, by an employee of the state’s attorney, Andrew Shirvell. Thankfully, and thanks in no small part to Cooper, Shirvell has since been fired.

Gay politics came up again in the news this year, and journalists from Jon Stewart to Rachel Maddow reported breathlessly on the possible repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and networks like CNN produced specials on gay soldiers. Unofficial DADT spokesman Dan Choi made his round of eloquent TV appearances, and even pulled a buzzworthy stunt on Kathy Griffin’s reality show by handcuffing himself to the White House gates.

Dan Choi and Kathy Griffin

TV news continued to dole out a number of human interest stories, which ranged from celebratory or bland to mildly offensive. CNN added “Gay” to its “In America” series (previously: “Black in America”) with an inoffensive if less-than-groundbreaking “Gary and Tony Have a Baby” and continues mostly with stories about how normal all us gays are, from having children to joining the military. And ABC's "What Would You Do?" featured a number of gay-themed episodes including a gay teen being bullied as well as a gay teen coming out to a less than receptive parent.

But there’s no such thing as a year without controversy, and ABC’s Nightline got a bit of it from anti-ex-gay activists with a favorable report on an ex-gay camp. Some video from the segment was pulled by the network. CNN also found itself mired in trouble several times as news reports on gay topics featured “experts” with less than stellar credentials. As for Fox News, the less said, the better.

Whew, what a year! It’s a little comforting to think of how hard it is now to summarize an entire year of gay and bisexual men on television. There are a lot of us and TV shows that we come in numerous flavors and packages – though, it should be said, it does a bad job of reflecting our racial diversity.

No review could ever be comprehensive, especially with all the minor characters and one-offs episodes on various returning and quickly canceled shows.

What else happened this year that’s worth mentioning? Is this the year gay TV grew up?