Logo targets lesbian audiences

Cable channel lands 'Girls,' cruise special

By JOHN DEMPSEY

In a move to broaden its lesbian aud, Logo picked up women’s prison skein “Bad Girls” from the BBC.

Logo, Viacom's ad-supported network aimed at gay auds, is ramping up programming for the lesbian half of its constituency, including a variety special featuring the entertainment on a cruise ship hired by lesbian vacationers, and 107 hours of "Bad Girls," a scripted series from the BBC set in a women's prison.

Also in the mix is a weekly online talkshow, "Second Opinions," featuring four lesbians discussing news of pop culture and entertainment, to run exclusively on the Web at Logoonline.com and wholly owned sibling AfterEllen.com.

The one-hour Logo special is called "Cruising the Caribbean With Olivia." Olivia is the name of the ship.

These initiatives follow Logo's November greenlighting of two series: scripted comedy "Exes & Ohs" and reality half-hour "Curl Girls."

"Exes & Ohs," which has a commitment for six half-hour episodes, follows a group of six women enduring the angst of lesbian dating in Seattle. (Vancouver will serve as a stand-in for Seattle to keep production cost down.)

Michelle Paradise, the star of the series, is also a co-exec producer with Lee Friedlander, Billy Grundfest, Noreen Halperin and John Morayniss. Halperin and Morayniss run Blueprint Prods., which produces Logo's first scripted series, "Noah's Arc."

"Curl Girls" trains its cameras on six lesbian friends in Los Angeles who have regular jobs but devote their spare time to competitive surfing.

Logo still doesn't subscribe to Nielsen because the network reaches only 25 million subscribers. But Logo general manager Lisa Sherman said in the last 11 months, the net's charter advertisers have shot up in number from three to more than 80, including American Express, Kodak and all of the major studios.