Gay TV Scorecard: Ugly Betty vs Brothers & Sisters vs The Starter Wife

In today's face-off, I'm pairing reigning champ Ugly Betty against the third episode of Brothers & Sisters and the debut of USA Networks The Starter Wife to see which provided the best gay moments on a scale from one to ten. For those of you read my BEST.GAY.WEEK.EVER column on Friday, you'll have an idea of which show won't be winning today!

Marc again showed well on Ugly Betty as Betty and the gang worked to figure out who pushed Christina down the stairs. Marc had a good deal of screentime as we continued to see there is more to him than just being Wilhelmina's lackey. Betty scores four points for featuring Marc and two more for including him without it being part of some clunky gay storyline. However, Betty also earns an extra two points for finding a way to get Coach Diaz (Eddie Cibrian) showering in Betty's apartment. 

Eddie Cibrian

Thus giving Betty a total score of 8 points!

Up next is Debra Messing's The Starter Wife which includes Rodney (Chris Dimantopolous) as the best gay friend. I'm automatically deducting two points the cliche of the best gay friend. I'm deducting two more points for having Rodney giving both relationship and fashion advice in the first episode. Five points are being deducted for having the closeted gay guy "accidentally" show Rodney his goodie basket and I'm subtracting three more points because Rodney is a fashion designer, four more points because Messing isn't nearly as funny as she is supposed to be as well as for being far too cutesy. Finally, I'm deducting 1,234 points because I've seen the first five episodes and Rodney's "relationship" could be boiled down to a 90 second clip without leaving anything out. 

That gives The Starter Wife a total of -1250.

After the jump, Kevin and Scotty cuddle, but is it enough to carry Brothers & Sisters to victory?

Last up we have Sunday's episode of Brothers & Sisters which featured Kevin confronting homophobia at work. I'm awarding the show four points for Kevin's prominence in the episode, plus two more for having Scotty show up in more than one scene. However, I'm also deducting one point because he still had so little to do. However, I'm awarding the show two points for their cuddling, but also deducting a half point for no kiss.

Matthew Rhys and Luke MacFarlane
(ABC/MITCH HADDAD)

The show earned two more points for dealing with the fact that gay people still face discrimination at work, but loses one more for having it be a rather obvious storyline. Finally, the show gets one point for giving Saul something to do besides appear once in Nora's kitchen.

That brings Brothers & Sisters' total to 8.5 points.

And that means Brothers & Sisters is the new champion!