Queerview television guide: the Weekend of October 9

This weekend's gay TV picks include what's bound to be a powerful episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show as Ellen observes the anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death, the beginning of a new season of The Graham Norton Show, a new comedy special from Wanda Sykes and another team-up between Sal and Don on Mad Men.

But with Dorian's press conference before the Llanview gay press getting heated on One Life to Live, we'll definitely be following it with a liveblog so be sure to join us starting at 2PM Eastern!

Friday

Live with Regis and Kelly (syndicated) Check local listings
Anderson Cooper returns to the guest-host chair today as Padma Lakshmi and Joss Stone are scheduled to visit. This, of course, means I'm desperately hoping Coop takes some time to dish about the current Top Chef season.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated) Check local listings
In what's bound to be a powerful episode, Judy Shepard stops by as we near the eleventh anniversary of the tragic events that put her in the national spotlight.

One Life to Live (ABC) Check local listings
As Dorian' announcement looks like it should wrap up today, will we find out what it was that Amelia and Nick were scheming about? I'm struggling to figure out how Jim Profit could have managed to scheme yesterday's events into place -- though, for now I'm really enjoying what Amelia has been up to.

Monk (USA) 9:00 PM EDT
Tim Bagley returns tonight as Monk's nemesis, Howard. With the series halfway through its swan song season, hopefully they'll be wrapping things up between Howard and Monk.

Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) 10:00 PM EDT
Maher continues a streak of gay-fave guests this week by having irreverent comedienne Sarah Silverman.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) 12:35 AM EDT
Jeff Lewis has certainly been making the chat show rounds this week, wrapping things up with Jimmy Fallon.

Saturday

Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me (HBO) 10:00 PM EDT
In her first comedy special as an openly gay performer, the formidable Sykes takes on topics such as motherhood, seeing an black man become president and gay culture.

The Graham Norton Show (BBC America) 10:00 PM EDT
Graham Norton's lively chat show returns for its sixth season with Ricky Gervais, Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne while gay-fave pop icon Olivia Newton-John performs. It turned out Most Popular wasn't enough to prevent Norton withdrawal, so I'm looking forward to this one. In the meantime, here's the star of Invention of Lying talking to Graham about his own lying.

Sunday

The Amazing Race (CBS) 8:00 PM EDT
It's time for one team to make the one common and horrible mistake we see again and again -- somebody loses their passport. Hopefully, it won't be Sam and Dan so I can go back to worrying about them being doomed by a U-Turn.

American Dad (Fox) 9:30 PM EDT
Roger and his tendency for, uhm, drama ruins the family's attempt to travel to visit a college for Hayley... which ruins the plans Steve had when he was left home alone.

Brothers & Sisters (ABC) 10:00 PM EDT
From the sound of this week's description, this week's episode is largely going to be about Kitty's cancer. At least, we can offer a livechat to snark away at the lengths this show will go to make us feel sorry for Kitty.

Mad Men (ABC) 10:00 PM EDT
Sal finally gets some story time this week as he and Don team up to try to win back an unhappy client. I expect that we'll get to see them deal with what happened during their last time they teamed up to win over a client.