The LGBT community can say farewell to gay-focused programming at Logo following its announcement to expand their television lineup to what the network calls “mainstream culture.”
Logo explains the change comes in wake of the gay and lesbian community leading “fully integrated lives” that don’t depend on leading first with their sexual orientation – rather, shows like “Modern Family” showcase gay and lesbian people far more accurately than other TV programming that leads with gay-focused themes.
“Culturally, we’re past the tipping point. For gays and lesbians, it’s part of who they are, but they don’t lead with it, because many are leading fully integrated, mainstream lives,” said Lisa Sherman, Executive Vice President of Logo. “Our goal at Logo has always been to honestly reflect our viewers’ lives. We’re now reinforcing our commitment to them with programming that truly mirrors how many of them are living and want to be entertained today.”
Logo says the shift in programming – which will abandon most of its gay-only TV lineup – follows a study that more closely identifies the way the LGBT community lives today. Findings suggest that 53 percent of gay people live openly but without a priority to showcase their sexual orientation. Only 30 percent of those surveyed say they preferred living and socializing in an exclusively LGBT community.
“The gay community continues to evolve in size, influence and identity,” said Starcom Mediavest’s Esther Franklin, EVP, head of SMG Americas Experience Strategy. ”Beyond Demographics (TM) allows us to understand the needs of this critical community as they emerge and to paint a clearer, more specific picture of what’s meaningful and relevant in their lives.”
The updated lineup at Logo will feature shows akin to “America’s Next Top Model”, “Laguna Beach”, and “Storage Hunters” after producers of those shows have signed on to produce programming absent of gay-focused plots.
Logo says it will not abandon some of its prime gay TV including “RuPaul’s Drag U” – one of the network’s top-performing shows.
That sucks why can’t Logo show some gay movies.
I think it’s great that the channel is so focused on integrating real life (which most of us gay folks live) with the “gay community”. Being gay doesn’t always have to be about rainbows and debauchery or naked boys and girls wearing cargo shorts.
We are so much more and finally heterosexual individuals are starting to recognize that and make efforts to drop the “gay and straight” communities. Together as one… we are equal. I will take the good with the bad because that is the good fight… and the one that we as gays have been pushing at for so long.
But…I like cargo shorts.
“Fully integrated lives”??? In what Wonderland does Logo Management live?
Having a state constitutional amendment that forbids any state governmental institution from recognizing marriage between persons of the same sex or any relationship that attempts to approximate marriage (as in Ohio) is NOT consonant with a fully integrated life.
Having one’s same-sex marriage threatened by bigoted presidential hopefuls on the Republican side of the aisle who promise to “unmarry” couples who married in progressive jurisdictions is NOT living a fully integrated life.
Having to justify the legitimacy of marriage equality at every turn along one’s life journey is NOT a fully integrated life.
Having religious institutions preach misinformed theologies of bigotry that are contrary to the mandate to love one’s neighbor and forbidding full inclusion at all levels of participation is NOT a fully integrated life.
Just as having an Africian American in the office of President of the United States does not make our society “post-racist,” having sporadic venues of acceptance in society for LGBT folks does for a fully integrated life make.
Make no mistake: LOGO has sold out to the other side, to those who would prefer that LGBT folks go back into the closet and to refrain from “flaunting” their “lifestyle” (gee, we live in style!) when they must venture outside the closet, to those who would prefer that LGBT persons live out a life of duplicity with a false façade in public instead of one with integrity in all aspects of their multi-faceted lives. LOGO drank the anti-LGBT Kool-Aid.
I can see it now….another TV/Cable station with a program full of reruns that I have seen and don’t wish to recall…I smell a bomb coming up…This is always a channel that I could escape to for programming that I could watch, feeling myself, like going to a gay bar and feeling comfortable…Well, thank God for choices…I have them and will use them for other channel viewing…I wish them luck…they’ll need it…
This is bullshit. Being Black for Black people doesn’t lead with their lives either and I don’t see BET abandoning Black centric shows for more mainstream programming.
Thank you Mike! We have mainstream on the other channels. And then you have channels with specialties. Old people live among us in “fully integrated lives” but that doesn’t mean that we stop airing the classics.
“Fully integrated lives” is such a silly thing to say to begin with! That’s what they say when they release baby animals back into the wild, or people who have Anthropophobia, Agoraphobia, or PTSD back into the world.
This is very stupid. While it’s true that many many GLBT people DO live “fully integreated lives”, that ignores the point of why they watch LOGO in the first place– precisely because they want to see gay-themed television. This decision might make sense if LOGO wanted to be the only channel GLBT people watched– but it’s not. They have other channels to see the other apects of their lives. Foolish decision on the part of LOGO, which will probably result in significant decline in viewership.
It’s probably a money issue, they want a bigger segment of the population to tune in to the ads….LGBT people are a minority after all.
wow logo,really? cant the glbt community have there own station.I think you should just up your station with more informative shows about being gay in a hetro society. being from philly area and living in san francisco its very gay and straight freindly. I just drove across country and let me tell you, there are still alot of closeted gay people everywhere. heres a show idea have someone interveiw people from these areas. show how gays in the mountains,desert,mid country,live.I would be able to do that.
Thank God. I was afraid heterosexual people weren’t getting enough representation in the media. Can Logo focus on the lack of white people on television next?
“…fully integrated mainstream lives.” ??? 2nd-class citizens getting white-washed into the gray-zone. Still the ever popular sacrificial pawns in Right-Wing political gambits. Gosh we’ve made SOooooo much progress, heck we even mow our lawns like Regular People do!
Thanks Logo – Did you bring us out from the back of the bus – just so you could throw us UNDER it?!?
Totally sucks. Sucks even more that they think shows like Modern Family accurately portray todays gay and lesbian population. We get hundreds of channels all catering to heteros. Logo was the only one we got that catered to us. Bad play Logo.
How many hours of Ru Paul can one person watch anyway? Not the image I can identify with as a gay man.
Yeah, good luck getting anyone else to broadcast “Rick & Steve” for example. Time to sign up for HERE! TV, which costs, so I’d hope it won’t bleeped and blurred at least.
Modern Family is great except for the fact that the gay couple NEVER KISS ON THE LIPS.
Wow! That is totally lame!!! I hate those shows! And there is no gay peoPlein them! If I wanted to watch trashy ass shows I’d watch it on MTV or that dumb fashion channel. This is why I have stopped watching Logo cause it isn’t that awesome gay channel. It’s that gay channel that can’t show tv shows or movies of what gays are really like (not guys looking and acting like a parody of a girl). This is retarded and mainstreamwas always shit! Be different! Not a lapdog! I’m not saying give us freaky stuff but if you’re gonna give us used shows I suggest making you’re OWN shows like MTV!!!! That’s why it’s successful!!!!!!! Create your own. Can’t believe gays even get eliminated from their own tv network by straight love stories.
How about this. Keep the RuPaul shows… dump the rest of the reality junk and and focus more on the mainstream Gays. Just because many of us are fully integrated into the total American diverse multi-cultural society, doesn’t mean that we don’t want a Network totally devoted to us. Blacks have BET, Foodies have Food Network, there’s a western channel, history channel, science channel, romance channel, soap opera channel and OMG Christians have several Christian networks available to them on Direct TV. I love watching shows focused on the Gay Community. I want Gay News, Gay oriented movies and yes… Gay talk shows and forums such as 1 girl 5 gays. Overall, we are severely under represented on other networks. Usually gays are played by straights in most sitcoms. We need to pull out our best and brightest writers and show what we can really do. I don’t mind if LOGO adds more programming to expand into the so called mainstream. Just don’t stop being a Gay network.
I’m with DarHalen^!
Truly sad. I’m honestly disappointed that LOGO has sold out. They may not have represented everyone — or even perhaps -anyone- perfectly: but the fact was, they showed a variety people in different situations, which is a lot more than any “mainstream” media does, or will do, for a very, very long time. I’m in full agreement with KC above: “LOGO drank the anti-LGBT Kool-Aid.” What a loss for so many people, especially -young- people, positively grasping at strands of anything to find some kind of validation, acceptance, or models — to simply make them feel less alone in the world, make them smile for one moment. Thank you, networks, for just taking one. more. little. piece. of. sand. away… What happens when the hourglass runs out?
MTV blows another good idea all to hell in search of ratings. I want a channel with gay themed programming that I can relate to. However logo lost me when they dropoed gay themed news, gay themed music shows and documentary and favored showing mainly drag queens and the vapid queens of The A-list. Set a negative example, remove all the positive, making it like pointless reality tv that straights laugh at, and THEN give up when it backlashes. Now more than ever we need a channel to educate us AND them, not mock us or lie to us and tell us we are mainstream now when gay children are still committing suucide thanks to these negative images and lack of info and education you could be providing. RIP logo.. And congrats on becoming another rerun dump
No suprise. Viacom ruined MTV, VH1, TNN, CMT, TV Land, Nick at Nite. Now Logo. Shame on Viacom/Mtv Networks for selling out.
wow. the stupidest move ever known by an originating cable network. LOGO has truly lost it; its soul, its backbone, and what’s funny is LOGO basically transcended television networks play it safe code by subliminally suggesting that we gay folk be comfortable in our own skin but now it seems the very purveyor of self love has somehow allowed itself to be innundated with feelings of low self worth as though it somehow needs to adjust; become chamelion-like so as to gain better acceptance. how dreadful. never again will I promote the logo station to my friends. Dirk.
wish i had money I would purchase the network and do wonders with it…first by changing the name
Hate it! I switched to AT&T to have Logo in my programming schedule again. Now it’s here and none of the things I loved about it are here anymore. RuPaul… Really, you think lesbians want to watch RuPaul marathons. Get back in touch with who you once were or you will be ‘just another station’ amongst the hundreds of others and a ‘boring’ one at that. You use to offer us solace and a choice, now you turn your back on the community and disappoint. Sad day for LGBT when you did this….
I stop watching Logo Network completely several years back. The program line up of “Original” series were all “reality” shows, no dramas, no comedies, no Made for TV movies. I thought, They’ve gotten as bad as the rest of the networks, a couple of years from now they won’t even be gay. Once again I have the hallow satisfaction of knowing I was right. If only I could I be proven, I’d actually be happy.
I’m fairly certain I’ve check this out very same kind of statement in other places, it must be gathering popularity with the people.
I just came across this article in a search for the names of the executives at Logo, so that I could submit a wonderful TV series (completed) from Spain, called The Gayborhood. But it looks like LOGO has clearly moved out of that “hood.” It’s too bad, because with 10-20% of the population being gay, they are missing a big demographic to sell whatever their sponsors are trying to sell. Except for RuPaul, which is a terrific show, they really never found another personality or show to “anchor” the network and bring viewers back. The Golden Girls is also a great show, but again, it’s not a gay-themed show. There is so much LGBT material being made, and no place to go. It’s a failure of both LOGO and capitalism in general that this material has not found a home. I remember when cable TV promised lots of diversity in programming, but quickly succumbed to the network model of broad programming intended to “get numbers.” I think one smart capitalist has an opportunity. Call it GAY-TV and fill it up with innovative movies, talk shows and series. The money is waiting to be made.
Ok… just got cable again after a year and a half and am TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTED and horrified at the endless Golden Girls reruns, nongay themed horror movies, and daring show featuring straight people!!!!!!!!! The above article talks about.how glbt life.is more mainstream, but I live in Indiana… in the midwest… and am only 37… I have been out for yeats, have a wife, co-adopted children, blah blah… BUT was looking forwatd to seeing gay comedy, gay movies, and maybe some.GAY FAMILY PROGRAMMING… but NO!!! So sad. So so sad.
As I understand a variety of viewing options offering up more reality T.V. feels weak. If I read correctly it seems you have dropped Ru Paul’s Drag Race. In some venues Drag Race may be the only opportunity to see professional drag. I hope I read that incorrectly. As tired as some might be of drag shows we aren’t. We get together and watch betting on our favorites. It’s been unique and truly fun entertainment. Drag is fierce although dressing up straight dudes shouldn’t eliminate the intense competition brought home by top of the line drag elite. I’m forever reminding people drag is theatre and an important part of lbgtq history.
About the only GLBT show I see on logo now is RuPaul’s drag race, which is just a cheap imitation of America’s Next Top Model. When I want to watch a good gay-themed show or movie, there’s no where, absolutely, NO WHERE to watch it on television. I have to pay monthly for a Netflix subscription just to find some gay programming.
Shit movies and bad 80s shows just doesn’t cut if for me. I doubt I will be tuning in to LogoTV for any of their shit programming.
I think they should keep the gay shows on LoGo and get rid of the rerun shows. Seperate them on different network. That way LoGo will have the space to put on more gay shows such as movies, etc
Darn, I was hoping that Logo would cancel each “gay” program it airs. If I had children, I’d block that network’s channel.
I appreciate that you think of the mainstream. I personally am not gay but as long as you don’t push your lifestyle on me I will not force mine on you!
I was looking today for I dream of Jeannie and Bewitched today and couldn’t find them..
We enjoy watching those shows and they cover all issues without being insulting to anyone. ..
I wish someone would bring back Mr. Ed the talking horse even….
It is better then the ones you put on effective 5/24/16…
Do not like the new line up will not be watching now. ….. Goodbye!
Not that this comment even matters to logo, but most of the shows that you’re playing are on netflix… This channel is completely worthless now! Condragulations!!!!