Show Me The Money: 'Honey Boo Boo' Gets Massive Salary Increase

When TLC's wildly popular reality program, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, hit the network in a cyclone of pink taffeta and go-go juice, neither the producers nor the featured Thompsons seemed to know what they were getting into … and it wasn't long before the viewing public, who were riveted by the small-town Boo Boo and her backward but well-meaning family, started smelling exploitation.

TLC was criticized for paying "Mama" June Thompson and the large Honey Boo Boo clan, which now includes newborn Kaitlyn, as well as Chickadee, Pumpkin, Chubbs and patriarch Sugar Bear, only $5,000 per episode for the series when it first launched, when they spared no expense on the casts of their other sensationalistic programs.

When it became clear that Here Comes Honey Boo Boo was actually going to be a huge hit for the network, it was re-signed for a second season and the beloved Boo Boo family got a pay boost from the $2,000 to $7,000 that they were originally making to somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000, reports Business Insider.

TLC also reportedly offered to buy the family a larger home, but Mama June declined.

Watch Honey Boo Boo, a.k.a. Alana Thompson, who was first noticed on TLC's Toddlers and Tiaras, talking about her love of money here:

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