Gays, Lesbians Watch ‘Queer Eye,’ ‘South Park,’ ‘Golden Girls’

A new study from Simmons on the media consumption of the gay and lesbian population suggests that many preconceived notions about this demographic are incorrect, writes Media Life. While it’s true that gays favor premium cable channels, consistent with stereotypes, they are also apparently big fans of Comedy Central’s South Park, for example.

The media usage of this demographic goes beyond Bravo, which airs Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (viewed by 41 percent of the gay population in the last month, compared to 7 percent of overall population). Gay men are most likely to watch the following channels (in descending order): Comedy Central, Discovery, Spike TV, A&E, Bravo, Sci Fi, CNN, Lifetime, Fox News, and HGTV.

Gay women are most likely to watch HBO, A&E, USA, ESPN, Discovery, Lifetime, Showtime, Bravo, TNT, and Starz.

However, MTV Networks’ ad-supported network targeting gay men and women, with 18 million subscribers, was not included in the study. The network launched June 30.

In specific shows, South Park was watched by about 25 percent of gay men and lesbians in the last four weeks. Other popular shows include Law & Order: SVU, Lifetime’s Golden Girls, and Spike TV’s Real TV.

Gay men and women are also more likely to subscribe to cable and satellite TV than the average person, at 91 percent versus 80 percent of the total population.