The Week in Gay TV: "Top Chef" Goes All-Star and "The Whole Truth" Makes a Brief Return

Welcome to another edition of The Week in Gay TV, your look ahead at the shows that will be battling for your attention as you sort through your holiday shopping list. Things are a little busier in the week ahead, with a new season of Top Chef debuting and The Vampire Diaries and The Whole Truth making a return.

Thanksgiving weekend is usually pretty quiet for new TV but BBC America still has a new Law & Order: UK with out actor Ben Daniels, as the disappearance of a ten-year-old girl ends up needing video from a security camera in order to be solved.

But first, BBC America is airing the entire Law & Order: UK series, starting at 11 AM. As much as I’ve liked the first overseas edition of Law & Order, I haven’t managed to watch every episode before the DVR deletes it. With so many shows taking last week off, I’ve finally got the time to catch up.

There may not be a lot of new programming airing this weekend, but there are a few series marathons to give you the chance to get caught up on various shows. Up first, Logo is offering viewers a chance to catch the entire Noah’s Arc withe the entire first season airing on Friday, starting at midnight.

The Comeback's Lisa Kudrow and Robert Michael Morris

Meanwhile, if you missed it when it first aired on HBO, the Sundance channel has a mini-marathon of The Comeback starting with the first episode. The comedy series starred Lisa Kurdrow as Valerie Cherish, an actress filming a reality show about her return to the small screen. Naturally, her comeback hits many snags as her character is minimized to give Valerie’s younger co-stars more screen time. Plus we realize that Valerie doesn’t actually have the talent or charm to deserve a comeback. Basically, imagine a cross between Entourage and the original Office.

The Comeback received very mixed reviews when it debuted but it did earn a loyal, gay audience and the talent behind the scenes was a big part of the series’ gay appeal. It was co-created by Sex and the City, Will & Grace and Cybill writer Michael Patrick King while Kudrow’s frequent partners in crime, Don Roos and Dan Bucatinsky, were part of the show’s production team. Meanwhile, the cast included out actor Robert Michael Morris (currently seen in Running Wilde) as Valerie’s hair stylist and a pre-Twilight Kellan Lutz as one of Valerie’s frequently-shirtless co-stars. The first episode airs at 8:15 PM, with Sundance repeating the first three episodes several times over the weekend.

While most shows are taking the holiday weekend off, Danielle Fishel has more pop culture commentary coming with a special episode of The Dish. This week, Fishel looks back at TV’s best moments of overeating and shopping with The Binge and Purge Holiday Special. I’m guessing the eating contests from ABC’s tribute to the sanctity of opposite-sex marriage, The Bachelor Pad, will provide the eating clips while The Real Housewives will likely supply the horrendous examples of over consumption.

Logo has plenty of marathons to keep you busy on the Saturday starting with a Logo Documentaries marathon starting at 6 AM including the hair styling competition on Hair World, Jay McCarroll putting together his first show since winning Project Runway in Eleven Minutes, a look at  the influence of Fashion in Film, the story of the only guy in a women’s sport in Synchronized Swimming and the pageant of Transtasia.

Meanwhile, the Sundance Channel will be following the travels of out Anthropologie buyer Keith Johnson with a marathon of Man Shops Globe’s first season starting at 4 PM. Then, at midnight Logo has another Noah’s Arc marathon, this time airing the full second season.