Much was made of TLC’s Here Comes Honey Boo Boogetting higher ratings than the Republican National Conventional, but Bubba didn’t do much better against Boo Boo.
Although ratings for the reality show dropped 20 percent from the previous episode that aired against the RNC, at least on one of the cable networks it tied the Democratic National Convention — which featured former president Bill Clinton’s speech — in the key demographic. The Hollywood Reporter explains:
“Still, Honey Boo Boo tied CNN’s coverage of the Democratic National Convention — including a speech from President Bill Clinton — and syndicated Big Bang Theory encores among 18-49-ers on cable and trailed only NBC’s NFL season opener on all of television during that hour.”
Most Americans are busy with their lives and, for better or worse, aren’t particularly interested in political speechifying. In their downtime, they’d rather watch something entertaining. Whether the Honey Boo Boo reality show qualifies as “entertainment” is for the viewer to decide. It is somewhat remarkable that Honey Boo Boo was competitive against NFL football, however, which is a viewership juggernaut.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that, even with the ratings drop off, “[this week's installment] still stands as the series’ second-highest audience in its five-episode history.” There undoubtedly will be more ratings analysis of the convention and competing programming forthcoming.
As it is, most reality shows have a limited shelf life, so it’s not surprising that ratings tend to decline after the novelty (sometimes referred to as watching a train wreck) wears off.
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo airs Wednesday at 10 pm Eastern on TLC.
Actually, this statistic only includes the number of viewers watching Clinton's speech on CNN. Add the other networks together, and you get 25.1 million viewers for Clinton. That means over 10 times as many people were watching President Clinton.
All these reality shows are stupid, I can't figure out what it is about them that people like!