Sorry, can't help you out. I've never watched it either. The ads turn me off too.

I had seen a few of the Toddlers & Tiaras show and this family was "discovered" on that show. I Have never watched their spin-off show. I watched the Toddlers show like I would watch a science show ... amazed at what I was seeing and wondering what motivated the parents and the pageant business. It was interesting to see that most of the mothers were overweight/obese and seemed to live their lives through their cute toddlers. For the most part, time, genetics and their home environment won't be kind to many of those kids.

For many, I think it is like driving past a bad accident ... you just can't avoid looking.

This post was edited by chispa on Wed, Jan 22, 14 at 21:53

I know what you mean! I did watch one episode to see what it was about. They had to use subtitles so the viewers would understand what they were saying.
I don't know why anyone would keep watching these shows. From Duck Dynasty to Housewives of where ever, it amazes me that these shows are actually on television .

Annie, I cannot understand the mentality of the show, let alone those who watch such crap, what an insult to anyone with normal intelligence. I don't see the humor in a family who go out of their way to be like pigs and ignore the use of any sort of manners and politeness. And 'using' a child for such so called humor boggles my mind~shouldn't CPS be informed?lol The commercials alone are enough to make me want to throw something at the TV!

Never had cable (or satellite or dish or whatever) so have never seen Honey Boo Boo or Housewives or..... Once in a blue moon I feel a bit out of sync with the world when something like that is the big 'news' item of the day. But the feeling passes quickly and honestly, there is no hole in my life without them. From what I've heard, watching it would probably make me feel ill so I have no idea what the attraction is. It is a mystery.

We don't get cable so I only know a little about this show. I think people just like to see how "others" live and get a glimpse into the lives of others. Kind of peeking in the window. People either want to 1) relate to the people on TV as "normal people just like us" or 2) feel superior, depending upon the show.

This isn't new, it all dates back to Real World and MTV's "True Life" which I think were the catalysts that prompted this whole shift to reality TV. It has just gotten worse and worse because we've become so used to these "secret looks into people's lives" that TV stations have had to go further and further to entice audiences to find someone "interesting" enough to stand out.

I just miss cable sitcoms and dramas that were actually good. Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, even Friends were so funny (in my opinion) and I loved dramas like Judging Amy. I don't think anything compares today except The Good Wife and the PBS shows (Downton Abbey, etc). I'm afraid really good shows and especially funny sitcoms are never coming back because it is so much cheaper to get idiots to make fools of themselves on TV :(

I've seen a teeny tiny tidbit of an ad for the show when hubby was channel surfing, so you can guess how I feel about it in that such a small sample turned me off.
I don't get any reality show. The only one I've ever watched was Designing for the Stars which was more of a contest, until it turned Junior high like.
To me it's a sad view of what America, not sure if other countries have these kind of shows, has become by what we accept as entertainment.

I've never seen it either. Nor Duck Dynasty or any of the other 'reality' shows. They're all so incredibly scripted any more, so it's just horrible to see any of them. I think DH and I saw an advertisement for another one of those shows-this one was something like Cajun Croc Hunters or something stupid like that. And this was on one of the lesser popular channels!

Any more, the only reality type show I watch is Chopped. It's at least original! And I've gotten into Modern Family-about the only show any more that actually makes me laugh out loud.

But to address the OP-I have no idea what the draw is for this trash TV. I half suspect that it's not really a draw-it's hype by the programmers. They all hop on the same bandwagon until some one comes up with a new concept. Meanwhile, there are still channels that show the 'good old days' of tv shows. Reruns of 60's, 70's and early 80's shows. Some goldmines out there!

I think the draw for this show and many other reality series is that people love to watch other people and make judgements about them. Look at all the "Real Housewives" type shows that are out there. I've not seen an entire episode but I have seen clips here and there on the internet.

People are watching to see what outrageous thing the family will do next--not realizing that while the show may not be scripted, the family is put into situations by the producers of the show all the time--they will be told to go to a particular contest or popular attraction or told to cook a certain meal or otherwise be given a framework for the episode. And then there is very careful editing to produce a show that may have very little relationship to what actually happened, but that will capture the audience and lead to a lot of water-cooler talk the following day.

The producers create the effect of a train wreck about to happen and some people want to be there when it crashes.

I too am perplexed at the Honey Boo Boo popularity, at least with the Housewives shows you see nice homes and clothes.

I watched the wedding of Honey Boo Boo's parents recently, I really think it was totally scripted, down to the outfits. I think the show makes fun of their lifestyle and they go along with it since it gives them an income.

I did read an article about it ... which is far more tolerable than watching it ... which only added to the mystery: glorifying obesity and poor diet (spaghetti sauce made from margarine and ketchup!I)...mother with 4 children each by a different father and no marriages...one daughter unmarried and has a child...and apparently a long history with government and child support payments and not much with employment.

For those of you without cable, here's what you're missing....

Apparently it was one of their highest rated shows and is going into a 3rd season with additional specials.

The mind boggles...

Further, it is being broadcast in 150 countries.

Can you imagine?

Well, I got the pleasure(NOT) of watching several of the Duck Dynasties last year when my barn guys were staying with us. Could anything have been more awful??? No. They loved it. Perhaps, 'nuff said.

Last week, in my exhausted funk, DS at a meeting, and DH at Cavemen Chorus, I turned on the TV, and there was that wedding!! Like a train wreck, I could not turn it off. I took 2 showers before bed, LOL!!

These shows are ALL written by the same team, apparently. If you've seen one, you know how the others go. DH and DS used to watch that motorcycle one, and it sounds EXACTLY the same, except I don't remember it having subtitles!!!
Nancy

"...mother with 4 children each by a different father and no marriages...one daughter unmarried and has a child...and apparently a long history with government and child support payments and not much with employment."

Okay, now I understand why it's so popular! Sadly with your description of it I finally "get it". With so many in this country on "government assistance" along with having children with a number of different "baby daddies", to up their "income" it sadly makes sense why it's so popular.

Welfare was started as a hand up to help those in need get on their own two feet again. Shamefully it has long since become a handout with many using it as their income instead of a helping hand. I don't understand that kind of mentality. I never will.

There's nothing at all wrong with truly needing help to care for your family. It seems many on welfare today are able bodied and could find work if they just looked for it even if it wasn't something in their field of expertise. Granted by what I hear welfare pays more than minimum wage so even for those that aren't lazy, it makes more sense to stay on welfare.

One would hope that a show like this would encourage those folks to use this time to find a way to legitimately re-educate themselves, but instead this show seems to be glorifying being on welfare. For life. Maybe it's paid for by our government?

I've watched it maybe three times. After a while -- how many train wrecks can you watch? I was impressed by two things. First, these people are not stupid and second, in a weird way, they are a strong family. I also am fascinated by the mother's chin(s).

You can't convince me that anyone is actually watching it.

When I was rambling around Europe in the early '70s, the only thing my mother wrote me letters about was an early reality show on Public TV called "An American Family". She was fascinated by this peek into another family's life.

Never watched it and don't intend to. Duck Dynasty or any of the other shows either. I refuse to pay homage to any of these 'reality' shows. Is it reality or what some/most of our population would like to think is reality these days? And I'm also getting pretty sick of 'terrorist TV' and all the shows built around catching terrorists in the act of whatever.

I have never watched any of the TLC shows discussed here, but I have been known to enjoy some Housewives! I find other peoples lives interesting, especially when they differ from my own. I think it's human nature to want to understand others. Think of writers like Balzac - focused on realism - many of the lives he observed and recorded were NOT admirable at all. I think the big difference is that reality TV isn't that real (scripted), and it is not artfully presented, offers no insight or intelligent commentary, etc. It's an opportunity lost, in my opinion. We all need to read more!

I can't imagine having nothing better to do than watch that show. For me it would be a complete waste of time and my time is valuable to me. While I am aware of the struggles many have in their lives I have no need to see this type of lifestyle, especially when it is purported to be 'normal' or socially acceptable. I cannot see how the children benefit from this experience and think the child pageant business should be outlawed.

I also do not watch the cougar, housewives, or hoarders shows altho have watched the 'sister wives' shows occasionally. They are a curious study in human nature and what to me is a religious aberration.

Most 'reality' shows IMO should be termed 'unreality' shows as they are completely staged for sensationalism.

Another reason for the number of reality shows on TV is the writers' strike of 1988 and again in 2007-2008. The networks needed to fill air time, and reality tv doesn't need writers.

Just people willing to live their lives out on camera.

With just over the air tv reception I have been thankfully spared even inadvertently stumbling across miss Boo Boo's family and antics, and all the other shows mentioned. But this low level of tv is not new; just much more common now. Many years ago when home sick from work I remember watching in horror an episode of Jerry Springer; appalled that people would act that way irl, would do so on TV, that it was acceptable to air such drivel and worse that people actually watched it deliberately....and saddened over the influence over people's lives and behavior.

Well, Annie -- I am just going to make your day with this news: There's another show in the same vein now on TV: "Hollywood Hillbillies."

(I don't watch any of those shows, I just happened to look up at the TV when a promo came on for the latest one.)

Not a surprise as I guess even with "reality" shows it's monkey see, monkey do. I remember so many decades ago when Kojak was a hit TV show...the next season the other networks came out with Kodiak and Kolchak. When CSI became so popular, Law & Order: Criminal Intent suddenly became Law & Order: CI and of course they added NCIS.

I guess it just proves HL Mencken right:
No one in this world, so far as I know - and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me - has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.

What is sad to me is that the networks plan these shows because that is what people want to see! When there is an audience for this type of show, that is what is offered. I am appalled at what this says about our country.

Camlan, I am in total agreement with you. Ever since the strike even the great shows went downhill. What happened to the writers still around?

Do not and have never watched reality shows. They seem to be a haven for sociopaths who will do anything for attention. I'm embarrassed for those on them. Actually we aren't doing well with offerings on much of TV. Or the audience is far younger than we are and don't get it.

Haven't been to a movie forever....are they as limited in well written? Guess I do have the options for old ones ane rewinds.

I would never watch Honey Boo Boo, Duck Dynasty, etc..but I do watch some reality shows. Besides the whole "train wreck can't look away" element I think a lot of people just want light entertainment at the end of a stressful day at the office, commuting, etc....something they don't have to think about....an escape or guilty pleasure.

Another thing is that "reality" tv shows are much, much less expensive to make than a scripted tv series. No writers to pay, no sets to build and store between seasons, no studio for filming, etc.

A good friend of mine has a son who has written for shows like Monk. She is fiercely anti-reality tv, because she feels the job opportunities for people like her son are drying up.

The only reality shows I've watched have been What Not to Wear (I think that is considered a reality show) and Project Runway. From the first, I learned a bit about fashion. The second required the people to have at least some talent, and to use that talent weekly. Those types of shows I don't mind.

But I think there was one where they dared people to eat weird stuff, like live worms--just yuck. And the soap-opera type shows--just can't get into them.

I agree, it's all about money as it usually is. I think it started as a slam to the writers when they went on strike (as mentioned above) and it snowballed because people for some unknown reason, watched these shows.

History is full of examples of buffoonery as entertainment. The Punch and Judy puppet shows are examples dating back to when? The 18th century? It's interesting that we all decry this type of entertainment, but most all of us have some version of it that we watch (myself included).

Oh technicolor! There are many truly wonderful films being made...don't shun the movies. In the past two weeks I thoroughly enjoyed two , both starring amazing British actresses: Philomena , with Judy Dench, and Saving Mr. Banks, Emma Thompson. The latter was not my choice because the premise seemed so blah, and I loved it. It's lovely to walk away from a movie still smiling and warm....the way I recall feeling, years later, after Cider House Rules.
The Boo Boos, et al, give me the shudders. I agree that shoving children into these shows should be illegal. Yuk, yuk, yuk.
We do watch The Voice ( replacing American Idol) and Survivor.

P.S. meant to say: reading your title, Annie, I thought you'd lost your glasses again! ;>)

It's all about the shock value~society in general seems to have an affinity for it. The more outrageous, the more certain people are drawn to it. Guess you could equate that with the looky loos who keep traffic from moving because they have to check out a fender bender.

There are good tv series, imho, the Fosters, Parenthood, Grey's Anatomy, Homeland, Downton Abbey, the Good Wife, to name a few. I also have my guilty pleasure series, such as Project Runway, some Housewives, I watched all the million dollar listings shows, NYC and LA, lots of eye candy in those, I also like some of the cooking competition shows. There's a lot to pick from and I don't think it's all bad, reality tv or not. Browsing shows on ITunes can give you different ideas.

I do miss Call the Midwife, they could produce 2 seasons a year of this show and I would watch !!

Lol, Martinca!

People like to see others whose lives are a worse mess than their own? I'm boring. We are currently making our way through the entire series of "The office" on netflix. Other than that my guilty pleasure is diners, driveins and dives.