Here Comes Honey Boo Boo

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
File:Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.jpg The cast of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
Starring	Alana Thompson June Shannon Jessica Shannon Anna Shannon Lauryn Shannon Mike Thompson
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10
Production
Producer	Authentic Entertainment
Production location	United States
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	TLC
Release	August 8, 2012 (2012-08-08) – 2012
Release	9 – 27
Release	9 – 27
Release	9 – 27
Release	9 – 27
Release	9 – 27
Release	9 – 27
Related
Toddlers & Tiaras Honey Boo Boo: Family Sized

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is a reality television program on TLC which features pageant participant Alana Thompson (Honey Boo Boo), along with her mother June Shannon, father Mike Thompson and her three older sisters. The show is mostly filmed in and around the family's hometown in rural McIntyre, Georgia.

Series overview

Honey Boo Boo is best known for her trashy demeanor and appearance on TLC’s Toddlers & Tiaras. After a YouTube clip of Alana’s appearance from "Toddlers and Tiaras" went viral, TLC quickly offered the Thompson family their own reality show.

Alana Thompson was born August 28, 2005, to June Shannon and Mike Thompson, who have been together eight years but remain unmarried. They are portrayed as a Blue Collar family. Mike is said to work seven days a week in the chalk mines to support them. Thompson never graduated from high school. Shannon became pregnant with oldest daughter Anna at age 15 and had to drop out of high school. She later earned her G.E.D.

Shannon considered giving Alana up for adoption before her birth but refused to sign away her parental rights, and is sometimes criticized in the media for having four children, each with a different father. Shannon is the star of the show as much as her daughter with her extreme couponing with her family at the Piggly Wiggly, farting, sneezing, bingo playing and even her ketchup and spaghetti recipes. June Shannon portrays the head of the household as a loving redneck woman. She believes the show is a success because many lower income families identify with her family.

The family lives in McIntyre, Georgia. The average family in McIntrye is below the poverty line with a median household income of $24,028. The chalk mines are the principal industry in Wilkinson County.

Reality families usually make a salary 10 percent of a show's per-episode budget. Yet controversy stirred up when it was reported TLC was only paying the family between $2,000 and $4,000 per episode. Jon and Kate Gosselin of TLC's "Jon & Kate Plus 8," which first aired in 2007, earned $22,500 per episode. The Duggars of "18 Kids and Counting" are believed to be earning between $25,000 and $40,000 per episode. TLC says they're preparing for a second season and are in negotiations with the family regarding future earnings per episode.

Reception

Some reception to the show has been negative, with some viewing the show as controversial.

The A.V. Club called the first episode a "horror story posing as a reality television program", with others worrying about potential child exploitation.

James Poniewozik mostly praised the show, but criticized the producers for "the way that the show seems to assume that those viewers will look at this family and the world".

A reviewer for Forbes criticized TLC as trying to "portray Alana's family as a horde of lice-picking, lard-eating, nose-thumbing hooligans south of the Mason–Dixon line", stating that "it falls flat, because there’s no true dysfunction here, save for the beauty pageant stuff."

The Guardian also criticized the attempt to portray the Thompsons as something to "point and snicker at", saying, "none of the women or girls who participate in the show seems to hate themselves for their poverty, their weight, their less-than-urbane lifestyle, or the ways in which they diverge from the socially-acceptable beauty standard."

The Hollywood Reporter pronounced the show "horrifying," explaining "...you know this show is exploitation. TLC knows it. Maybe even Mama and HBB know it, deep down in their rotund bodies. Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is a car crash, and everybody rubber-necks at a car crash, right? It’s human nature. Yes, except that if you play that card, you also have to realize that human nature comes with the capacity to draw a line, to hold fast against the dehumanization and incremental tearing down of the social fabric, even if this never-ending onslaught of reality television suggests that’s a losing effort. You can say no to visual exploitation. You can say no to TLC. And you can say no to Honey Boo Boo Child. Somebody has to."

The Hollywood Reporter stated that the premiere episode did well, "scoring a 1.6 in the coveted 18–49 demographic and notching a whopping 2.2 million viewers".

The E! Network program The Soup frequently pokes fun at the show. Its host, Joel McHale, has given June the nickname "The Human Thumb," or "HT" for short.

Episodes

Series Overview

Season		Episodes	Originally aired		DVD release date
			Season premiere	Season finale	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
	1	10	August 10, 2012 (2012-08-10)	September 26, 2012 (2012-09-26)	—	—	—

Season 1 (2012)

No in Season	No in Series	Title	Original air date	Production Code	U.S. viewers (million)
1	1	"This Is My Crazy Family"	August 8, 2012	101	2.25
2	2	"Gonna Be a Glitz Pig"	August 8, 2012	102	2.14
3	3	"She Oooo'd Herself"	August 15, 2012	103	2.05
4	4	"I'm Sassified"	August 15, 2012	104	1.94
5	5	"What Is a Door Nut?"	August 22, 2012	105	2.33
6	6	"A Bunch of Wedgies"	August 29, 2012	106	2.99
7	7	"Shh! It's a Wig"	September 5, 2012	107	2.39
8	8	"Time for a Sketti!"	September 12, 2012	108	2.15
9	9	"Ah-choo!"	September 19, 2012	109	2.15
10	10	"It Is What It Is"	September 26, 2012	110	2.75

Specials

TvGuide confirmed that when Here Comes Honey Boo was renewed that 3 specials will also be airing, a christmas, thanksgiving, and halloween each getting their own special.

External links

• Here Comes Honey Boo Boo at IMDb