What's the Matter with LGBTQ+ Channel Logo? It's Not Complicated
When cable channel Logo TV went live in 2005, it aimed to bring LGBTQ+-themed entertainment to the gay masses and their allies. It didn't work out so well, according to The Wrap. (Story is behind a paywall.)
Once home to shows like "RuPaul's Drag Race," "Big Gay Sketch Show," and "Noah's Arc," the Paramount Media Networks property now offers "Drag Race" reruns along with blocks of vintage comedies like "Bewitched," The Wrap noted.
"The channel's once-robust push for original programming ceased ages ago," The Wrap said, "and layoffs have left Paramount's LGBTQ channel gutted, with 'just about no full-time employees,'" in the words of one source who spoke with the outlet.
Logo lost "Drag Race" to VH1 (another Paramount property) in 2017, before the hit reality show migrated to MTV (also a Paramount property) this year. Other shows fell by the wayside over the years.
The cable channel faced built-in limitations from the first, one source, identified only as a "former Logo executive," suggested, telling The Wrap that Logo "had a cap of roughly 40 million subscribers and the sheer number of gays and lesbians even available to capture as subscribers was never going to be enough to sustain the channel."
Add in the way that proliferating cable and streaming services have fragmented viewers in general, and it's likely that few such specialized content purveyors would flourish. But there was another, quite literally self-limiting, factor in play: The reluctance of Logo executives to mount a true challenge to the mainstream media environment. "The executives picked to launch the channel... were all gay or lesbian," another unidentified "former Logo executive" told The Wrap, "but strategically they weren't aligned," and, to the loss of the channel's core audience, "what went on behind the scenes and in the offices of Logo was way more interesting than anything they ever put on the air."
It didn't take long for Logo's recipe, or lack of one, to show signs of leading to where we are now. As early as 2012, reports of the cable channel's demise in terms of its queer-centric character were being released, with Huffpost noting that "the network has opted to green-light only female-friendly, gayish knock-offs" of various reality shows, while "Drag Race" spinoff "RuPaul's Drag U" was "getting a revamp to reach a more mainstream audience."
Logo's once-pink star has only faded to a paler shade of "meh" since then. To be fair, Logo's decline is part of trends that, at first, lifted cable up as viewers flocked to providers like HBO for quality fare broadcast TV couldn't offer; subsequently, streaming had a similar day in the sun, with major entertainment brands like Disney, MGM, NBC, and — yes — Paramount jumping into the streaming game (with their services often sporting a "Plus" in the name). The early years of the streaming revolution saw rivers of cash devoted to the development of original content; Netflix spent $5.2 billion on original content in 2021, for instance, a year in which its overall spending on content exceeded $17 billion.
That was only two years ago, but in today's fast-moving media environment that's almost a geological age. After a gold rush to streaming, with major players shoveling cash at glossy products intended to lure big audiences, exhaustion is setting in, and austerity with it. As The Wrap reported last May, "The Hollywood moguls who run the industry's dominant streaming services sent out a surprising message" — namely, that they "all intend to slow down spending on exclusive new streaming series and movies." (Story is behind a paywall.)
In a sign of the times, streaming giant HBO Max has been criticized for canceling some shows and pulling a number of old favorites from accessible inventory in order to cut costs — all of which has hit the streamer's LGBTQ+ programming hard. If queer programming — aside from rarities like "The Last of Us" — can't find a forever home on HBO Max, where can it thrive?
The cutbacks range across the streaming landscape. As The Hollywood Reporter noted recently, quoting from an analyst's report, 2023 has seen "a slower rate of growth in investment than prior years, with streamers taking a more cautious approach... as they adjust to a more crowded streaming market."
In the face of such new austerity, don't go looking for Paramount to rejuvenate Logo. Once looking like a harbinger of a golden age for gay TV, the cable channel seems, instead, to have become the proverbial canary in the coal mine. In fact, The Wrap noted, even Logo's mobile app is now inactive, "leaving logotv.com as the only way to stream Logo's archive."
If, that is, you feel like binging on old episodes of "Bewitched" and "Mama's Family."