'R.I.P., Gay TV: A Not-So-Sad Reality' Huffington Post

[Shadowplay]

LOGO believes showcasing sexual orientation on television is not a priority? Are they selling out?

Check it out:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-harvey/gay-tv_b_1305595.html

I'm wondering what others opinions on the subject might be? I know for many LOGO's programming has never been particularly satisfactory. In all honesty I have often been dissapointed in the poor scheduling and lack of variety in programming. However, I am a little disappointed in the choice of programming that will be introduced to the channel.

 

[MoufOfKhaos]

Oh, it's LOGO.

They haven't been about real gay shows and movies for years(aside from Ru Paul shows). At least now they're being honest about it.

 

[Shadowplay]

Oh, it's LOGO.

They haven't been about real gay shows and movies for years(aside from Ru Paul shows). At least now they're being honest about it.

I find it hard to deny

 

[justdra]

Since I have no access to LOGO, I would go with they need the money/viewers so they have to go into reality tv. Its cheap and sometimes trashy and attract more viewers.

 

[Ninja108]

Haven't Logo in a long time for the reasons the article mentioned.

 

[XYZZY01]

From Wikipedia: "Channel drift, or network decay is the gradual transition of a television network away from its original programming focus to either target a newer more lucrative audience, or to broaden their viewership by including less niche programming. Networks that focus on a particular theme, such as Golf Channel and History Channel, tend to air shows outside of this scope that the channel's management feels that the viewers would also like to see, though balancing the needs of expanding a network's audience while continuing to service a channel's most loyal viewers."

So sadly, it's SOP for cable channels.

 

[Iamthegame]

I think it sucks because in the us, logo is the the only lgtb channel out there.. they have here! on demand but there isn't much on there expect movies... a couple of years ago logo had (like other people have said), rick and steve, queer as folk(w/o the swears lol), they showed a show called my two dads(I don't know much about that one)... But now all that airs on logo is mostly rupal's shows... I just hope they keep 1 girl 5 gays, I'd like to see, the gay sketch show come back but I doubt it will... one more thing on here tv, they have a show called don't quit your gay job which is very good, I've yet to be able to get season 2 episodes but season 1 was good... I just don't see why they can't air or make more gay shows, there's bet, tv one, spanish channels... I just don't get why glbt is different?

 

[MoufOfKhaos]

If you notice, niche channels on cable are dying. BET, VH1 and MTV barely show music videos anymore(what's funny is VH1 and BET are the only two that have consistent video countdowns now - I know that BET wasn't always a music channel, but it became that for me)... the History Channel, TRUtv(CourtTV), TLC, A&E and channels in that vein are swamped with reality tv, news channels show more hysteria and gossip than anything... hell, there are very few channels that were born out of a niche market that remain at their core, the same as they were at their inception - the TWO I can think of off the top of my head are Lifetime and the USA Network - two channels that evolved with the times while staying true to their core message.

As for why there are not more gay shows, for gay people? Well, shows like The L Word, Queer as Folk, Noah's Arc, Will & Grace, and all the implied and gay-friendly ones like Six Feet Under, Ab Fab and Brothers & Sisters aren't being much made anymore, and shows with heavy gay fan bases(True Blood is supposed to be the "IT" show right now) are still being made on other channels. So losing LOGO to mainstreaming... not a huge huge lost.

Do I wish that a gay channel that started as a gay channel would remain as such? Yeah... even though some of the original programming was frankly not that good(I hated that sketch show). But they gave up very, very quickly(the channel is only 6 years old - 7 in June)... went from having great gay themed music(NewNowNext... I used to catch it at midnight, but my first time seeing it was when The Gossip's Standing in the Way of Control was playing regularly) and movies(and news) to marathoning the same show all day and repeating the same late night shows every 2 to 3 hours(that's when i'd catch Noah's Arc and Queer As Folk - Brit And USA - when they played them), to then not even showing gay shows, but shows that are considered lgbt friendly(mostly Buffy - i'm actually shocked they never acquired Xena, which became a gay show in later seasons). And this was all in a relatively short span of time.

And, of course, RuPaul.

So this really all goes back to my first comment. Oh. It's LOGO.

 

[Soilwork]

where will we ever get a few shows that depict gay people as either fame-obsessed drag queens, vapid gold diggers or... um... no, that's pretty much it.

Oh, and lots of low-quality documentaries about gay rugby teams and gay men who work out.

 

[altlover85]

I'm not at thrilled to hear about the changes, but at the same time, I wasn't in love with a lot of their gay programming.

I loved Rick & Steve and still love Drag Race, but other than that there wasn't a lot to love.

I like 1 Girl, 5 Gays, but I don't go out of my way to see it.

Ultimately, I wish they'd do decent shows like Noah's Arc but I suppose that costs a lot of money. The funny thing is, I only caught one episode of Noah's Arc on LOGO. I actually watched the series on Netflix.

I also have to say, I'm not a huge fan of watching censored versions of shows so I never really got into the QAF reruns.

It's too bad, but you never know when things might change for the channel.

 

[Soilwork]

Altlover hits it on the head.

Gay people have had our sexuality suppressed and censored by straight people enough. We didn't need queer as folk censored, too. Logo sucked. Next.

 

[mrfish67]

Logo was never very much good. The few movies they showed, like Newcastle, were censored and not run in widescreen format.

Plus, like many gay glossy magazines (some of which have ceased publication or scaled back), the channel only caters to a very narrow audience of urban, moneyed gay men who are interested in stuff about drag shows, fashion, grooming, dance music, and the like. From the article, it appears that they want to broaden their audience more and engage in the usual "channel drift" syndrome that plagues nearly every cable channel except Turner Classic Movies.

Its insistence on being ad-supported (rather than a pay-per-view or premium service) means that neither of the two situations above will ever improve. That's just the economic reality of it.

 

[roadtripboy]

All the ad people want channels watched by women 25 to 45. So that could explain the women friendly shows.

QAF when it was on Showtime had more straight women watching it than gay men. Seems straight women like to watch gay men make out. Just like straight men like to watch women make out.

On the other hand...LOGO seems to be run by idiots.

 

[Yuki Sohma]

Just sayin' not analyzing but it seems to me that I do not like to box anyone or anything into a certain stereotype and I would like to see America become more than 50% or less tolerant of all who wish to express themselves as they truly are.........thanks to LOGO for being there.

 

[vulgar_newcomer]

From Wikipedia: "Channel drift, or network decay is the gradual transition of a television network away from its original programming focus to either target a newer more lucrative audience, or to broaden their viewership by including less niche programming. Networks that focus on a particular theme, such as Golf Channel and History Channel, tend to air shows outside of this scope that the channel's management feels that the viewers would also like to see, though balancing the needs of expanding a network's audience while continuing to service a channel's most loyal viewers."

So sadly, it's SOP for cable channels.

You mean "Ice road truckers", or Swamp loggers (daddy put his mouth on a cottenmouth, come and watch me skin this hear gator after I take myselfs to the emergency room for cutting a hole in my arm with this here chainsaw" Jon bob on the history channel isn't really about history ??? Damn or "Redneck rocket scientist" on the National Geographic channel what should be on?