The Viacom-owned gay network recently did some "who the hell is our audience, anyway?" market research and came up with some fairly interesting numbers. One such data point: "Less than half of gay people want to live in the city and a majority want to live in suburbia or small-town America. Regardless of where they want to live, 58 percent want to live closer to other gay people." Really! But the gays always live in the city. The South End of Boston would be a dump if it weren't for them. But, I guess the times they are a blah blah. The second half of that data poses some problems for the folks polled, as there aren't too many already-established gay suburban or small-town enclaves. I mean, there are only so many Northamptons in this world, eh? But, those could be good numbers for Logo. Picture a gay who wants to hang out with other gays, but lives in Westport, Mass. There aren't many other 'mos in the immediate area, and there certainly aren't any gay bars. He could drive to New Bedford or maybe Fall River or maybe even Providence, but who wants to go all that way on a Friday night? What's the other option? Go to the high end of the dial and settle down with some crappy, low-budge gay flick or TV series. So, the newly provincial gays may need queer programming, Logo! Good news! But, other statistics about gay men and women having even numbers of straight and gay friends, being out to family members, and believing "it's important to integrate into the greater culture," could spell trouble. If things get too normalized, then there may not be a need for "here you go, girl" programming. Though, an obvious example of "niche" television enduring through the years would be BET, which, demographically speaking, holds a mirror up to African-Americans the way nearly every other network on television holds one up to white Americans. It's hard to imagine that there will soon be complete symphony between all of these seemingly disparate sets of tastes-not to mention satisfactory representation on the bigger nets-so maybe the "need," or at least a small audience, for Logo will remain. Anyway, poor social theorizing aside, these numbers represent the 1,800 gay people from New York and Dallas who were polled. Let's poll that made-up gay in Westport (I like to think his name is Barney Joy) and see what he has to say. In the meantime, maybe there should be a focus on, you know, quality. I'd watch then. And I subscribe to here! for Christ's sake. [via Manhattan Offender, who thinks these numbers spell doom for Logo]