Coming Out Would Put ‘Ellen’ Into Pressure Cooker

Now, the hard part.

We’ve heard for ages that Ellen DeGeneres’ character, Ellen Morgan, may come out of the closet this year, making her the first openly gay main character on network series TV.

For her part, DeGeneres has played up the coy bit to the point where it’s becoming annoying.

Will she, won’t she psyche! OK, already. The door’s open. Come on out.

And it looks, oddly enough, like Drew Carey turned the handle and opened up the possibility. That’s because his show is doing so well in the ratings that ABC found itself with a little gift from above.

Under the guise of moving his show to a better time slot - 9 p.m. from 9:30 p.m. on Wednesdays - a scheduling domino effect at the network is under way.

But don’t let the “Drew Carey” rationale fool you. Network executives are voodoo worshipers who wouldn’t mess with the karma around a Top 20 show if you held a gun to their heads.

Nope, this recent switch lets “Ellen” move out of the alleged family hour, plain and simple.

By jumping her show from 8 to 9:30 p.m., ABC can now green-light Ellen Morgan’s lesbianism. But with that comes a variety of problems and a ton of pressure.

For example:

She can’t be a gay cartoon. Plenty of those on TV already. She has to be real.

If she’s real, she needs to think about, lust after and eventually date women.

She can’t obsess about being gay. Gay people will assure you that they pay bills, get bored, watch TV and do everything else you do.

They don’t run around talking about being gay 24 hours a day. Neither can “Ellen.” It wouldn’t be funny.

She needs gay friends.

There are other, more difficult issues ahead: Why doesn’t she have a girlfriend? Why can’t she get a date? Is she dating too much? If she does have a girlfriend, why haven’t they kissed? And DeGeneres will be held accountable.

But many in the gay community simply want Ellen Morgan to be an accurate reflection of other gays.

“What I think every lesbian and gay man would like to see from every pop culture character is they act real,” said Kate Kendell, executive director of the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights.

“You have the same struggles, dreams and hopes as anyone else,” Kendell said.

The coming out party, as it were, isn’t expected to happen until at least February, and possibly as a season-ending cliffhanger.