Battle of the Network Gays: October 15, 2009

Every week we pick the gays who we think have made the biggest splash in television (or pop culture in general) and leave it to you, the keepers of the flame, to decide who will be crowned Gay of the Week. We'll announce the winner on Friday, and that champ will reign until a new set of challengers are introduced the following week to try to steal his title.

Last week, Actor Chris Colfer (he plays Kurt on Glee), took the crown for coming out with little fanfare in an interview in The Advocate. This week we've got four new contenders vying for the throne: A closeted ad man, a cigar-chomping Melrose denizen, a taser trigger-happy bear cub cop, and some not-so-newlyweds.

Check them out after the break, and vote for your favorite!

This week's contenders:

• George Takei and partner Brad Altman boldly went where no gay couple has gone before and after 22 years of togetherness — went on The Newlywed Show this week. Not only that, they won! Congrats to the happy couple!

• Mad Men's Salvatore Romano had a tumultuous week — the closeted 1960's ad man wound up getting cornered by a drunk and grabby client. Sal fended him off, only to have the embarrassed client get him sacked. Ironic that Sal was willing to mess around with that bellhop a few weeks ago, but not this client who, drunk or not, was sorta hot! As Sal tried to explain it to a completely unsympathetic Don Draper: "He was a bully."

Sal nearly ends up on the cutting room floor

• One Life to Live's Oliver Fish had the day from hell this week when he tried to take beefy beach bum Ross Rayburn into police custody only to be bullied around both by Ross and then his oily lawyer. But you don't want to mess with a bear cub cop and his taser. Sooner or later, Oliver always gets his man!

"Shock and awe."

• Caleb from Melrose Place has had relatively little to do so far, but things definitely picked up this week when he managed to score a dinner date with the hot male fashion designer client. When the client (played by handsome Ugly Betty alum Kevin Alejandro) said he was already hungry for "steak tartare" we don't think he was talking solely about appetizers.

Victor Webster as Caleb on Melrose Place

Vote for your favorite by 10 PM EDT Today. And be sure to check back either in tomorrow's BGWE or on the blog to see which network gay our readers have carried to glory!