The Week in Gay TV: USA Becomes "Fairly Legal," "infoMania" Shakes Things Up and Ricky Gervais Hosts the Golden Globes

Welcome to another edition of The Week in Gay TV, helping you navigate an increasingly-busy TV schedule. The February sweeps is only a couple of weeks away, and that means there are plenty of new and returning shows hoping to find a home on your regular schedule. That includes the debut of USA's new lawyer drama Fairly Legal as well as a couple more UK shows to cross the pond, Being Human and Skins.

Oh and some little cult show called American Idol kicks off its new season. Maybe this will be a year it finally finds an audience.

Friday, Anderson Cooper commemorates the 30th anniversary of the first AIDS diagnosis with a special episode of Anderson Cooper 360. The special will look at the past 30 years of fighting the disease and where the future of the battle lies. Along with the medical professionals leading the battle, Cooper will talk with Sir Elton John about the work of his foundation while familiar faces like Margaret Cho, Maya Angelou, Barry Manilow and Susan Sarandon will discuss what convinced them to become involved in the fight.

 HBO has the return of one of TV's smarter talk shows when Bill Maher kicks off a new season of Real Time with Bill Maher. You're probably very aware that Real Time has included plenty of gay guests such as Dan Savage, Andrew Sullivan and Rachel Maddow among its panelists and that looks likely to continue as the show kicks off its ninth season.

Ryan O'Connor is back to compete in a new episode of Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star. This week, Vera Wang is a guest-mentor when the competitors are challenged to put together a makeover segment. I have to admit, the first episode of Your OWN Show didn't really hook me. I was happy to see Ryan conduct a good interview (after a rough-looking rehearsal) but I didn't enjoy seeing the show start with a team challenge. So many of the competitors were working on tasks that didn't test their hosting skills, I wasn't able to get a first impression on who I'd like to see... well, get their OWN show.

If the producers wanted to start with drama, why not challenge the teams to interview Dr. Phil together, View-style? They'd be bound to get some good TV as the hopefuls try to figure out a way to stand out without being the rude, interrupting one.

Finally, Anglophile fans can choose between a crime procedural or fantasy as BBC America airs the second season premiere of Law & Order: UK and SyFy has a new episode of Merlin.

The Syfy Channel has another camptastic movie on Saturday with Behemoth. In response to humanity's environmental harm to the planet, the earth unleashes an ancient monster that has been hibernating in a dormant volcano. Eureka's Ed Quinn leads the team that has to stop the creature, so let's hope this is one of those Syfy movies where scientists react to shocking discoveries by taking their shirts off. It would be a waste to have Ed Quinn on a show and keep his shirt on, wouldn't it?

After languishing on basic cable for a few years (even getting reality TV spin-offs) for the past several years, the 2011 Miss America Pageant returns to broadcast television Saturday night on ABC. While beauty pageants were an early and deceivingly obvious gay sign  for many guys, this year the competitors includes Miss New York, Claire Buffie, who is credited as the first Miss America competitor to advocate for gay rights. If that's not gay enough, this year the judging panel includes Joy Behar and Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry.

Saturday also sees David Bromstad in a new episode of Color Splash while Gwyneth Paltrow hosts Saturday Night Live. Teen Nick continues its Degrassi marathon with Seasons 5 and 6, which sees Marco graduate and start college. Finally, BBC America has a new episode of The Graham Norton Show with guests Keanu Reeves and Emilia Fox.