Sep 14, 2007   | COMMENTS     

IT’S NO SECRET to anyone that knows me or has read my column during the last seven years that I’m a huge fan of CBS’ “Survivor.” I’ve watched every season, and rooted for the gay castaways, even though the network wouldn’t always confirm who they were. The official line was that they wouldn’t reveal the sexual orientation of a contestant until it came out in the “story” of the show.

Well, lo and behold, the bios for the upcoming season of “Survivor: China,” which kicks off Thursday, Sept. 20, at 8 p.m., aren’t nearly as coy. The first line of Todd Herzog’s bio mentions that he’s an “openly gay Mormon.”

Colleen Sullivan, the vice president of publicity who has a hand in creating the online profiles states it has never been a policy to leave out certain information about participants’ lives. “We put [their orientation] in the bios if the castaways were OK with it,” she says. “If someone’s not comfortable with it in their bio, we don’t put it in. That’s been the policy.”

Clearly Herzog, 22, didn’t have a problem with being out and proud. Sullivan added that, while the castaways did have input into their individual profiles, they have no input into what airs so, for instance, a closeted person wouldn’t be able to ensure information about his private life ended up on the cutting room floor.

At least this year, I know whom to root for in advance of the premiere.

AS FAR AS NETWORKS going gay, Disney-owned ABC seems to be leading the charge. Give it a little time and the alphabet network might just end up as gay as NBC-owned Bravo.

Not only does ABC have most of the gay characters on scripted shows like “Desperate Housewives,” “Ugly Betty,” and, most notably “Brothers and Sisters,” but it has several shows this coming season with gay creators and a new gay character headed for the tube at midseason.

ABC collaborated with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for a public service announcement when a character was coming out on the daytime drama “General Hospital” and the “Be an Ally & a Friend” campaign was born.

GLAAD just announced it will have 25 similar spots, where straight and gay stars ask straight audiences to support gay people in their lives, to be unveiled over the coming months. And, surprise, surprise, guess where most of the TV stars come from: ABC. In fact, all the other small screen allies are from cable shows.
 
Damon Romine, the entertainment media director for GLAAD, said the talent pool, which includes stars of “Betty,” “Brothers,” “Housewives” and “Gray’s Anatomy,” came from stars who attended the GLAAD media awards, where many of the same shows were nominated. Maybe if some of the other networks created some gay content, GLAAD would use their stars as well.

You can check out the spots by visiting www.glaad.org.

AND FINALLY, CONGRATS go out to gay favorite Kathy Griffin, who scored an Emmy on Saturday, Sept. 8, for the second season of her Bravo show “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List.” She beat out “Antiques Roadshow,” “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Milan,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Penn & Teller: Bullshit” to snag the Outstanding Reality Program statue. This category is given out at the Creative Awards Ceremony, which is held a week before the main ceremony and broadcast. This is Griffin’s second nomination and first win.

Griffin’s acceptance speech will be at least partially censored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences during a broadcast of the awards on E! according to the AP.

During her speech, Griffin said, “A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus … Suck it, Jesus. This award is my God now.”

The anti-defamation group the Catholic League called Griffin’s remarks “obscene and blasphemous.”