THE FORECAST CALLS FOR A HOT, HOT WINTER
Thanks to CBS' putting down Viva Laughlin like a rabid dog (due to ratings as bad as Melanie Griffith's plastic surgery), fans of Jason McCallister (Eric Winter) have been salivating like mad men for the return of Jason to Brothers & Sisters as Kevin's (Matthew Rhys) love interest. As you might recollect, Jason got shipped off to Malaysia while B&S waited to see how Winter's new gig on Laughlin fared. That meant Jason's relationship with Kevin was in limbo with the possibility that Jason might never return or would return only long enough to tearfully tell Kevin he had decided to join a convent in Kuala Lumpur.

Well, I'm happy to report that my sources tell me that Jason's character is returning in the season's eleventh episode and it sounds like he'll be around for a while. None of this is being said officially yet, but it sounds more reliable than the news I had last week about things not looking so good for Scotty (Luke Macfarlane). Winter's return is good news for Jason's fans, but not so good news for those hoping to see Scotty back together with Kevin.

Speaking of last week's news, I'd mentioned that I'd heard there were not so good things in store for Scotty, but now I'm hearing the exact opposite so who the frak knows what's in store for his character. Oy! Darn foilers.

As long as we're talking what's in store for various gay characters, I have some disappointing news on two fronts. For those of you who enjoyed last week's burgeoning romance between Terri (Mario Cantone) and George (Orlando Jones) on ABC's Men in Trees, don't hold your breath for George to move north to Elmo like it appeared he would do at the end of the ep.

In fact, Jones is currently not scheduled to make anymore MIT appearances which is really a shame. He and Mario had some good chemistry and I was curious to see where their story might go, but there are just so many interracial gay relationships on television that we'll hardly even notice this one is gone. At least Mario is scheduled to appear again in a few week's time.

The second bit of bad news pertains to a character that several AfterElton.com readers have suspected might be gay. I refer to Sheldon (Jim Parsons) on CBS' The Big Bang Theory.

So I checked out the show, especially the Halloween episode which has a scene showing Sheldon rather intrigued by a dumb, hot guy in a loin-cloth. Given that Sheldon does "read" gay in several stereotypical ways — and given that CBS is in desperate need of a scripted gay character — I contacted the network brimming with hope that Sheldon is in fact a big old 'mo. Alas, I was told he's not. Who knows? Maybe Sheldon will come out down the road, but for now those watching CBS for some gay content will have to stick with Todd on Survivor or the other gay reality contestant I just learned about on another show (and mention a bit later in the column).

And as long as we're talking CBS, Viva Laughlin, and Eric Winter I have to say I finally watched the first ep of Laughlin and the show was a total train wreck.

A fascinating train wreck, but a train wreck nonetheless. From Melanie Griffith's botoxed-to-death face to a lead actor with the charisma of a ballpoint pen to utterly ridiculous writing, the show failed on every level, but most especially on the very outside-of-the-box tone it tried to set. Ironically, I found myself thinking of Pushing Daisies, another show that really tried something different and is unlike most anything else on network TV. But where Pushing Daisies soars, Viva Laughlin crashed and burned — spectacularly.