Honey Boo Boo Season Finale Crushes Fox News in the Ratings

Last updated on September 28th, 2012 at 10:15 pm

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The season finale of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo drew more total viewers age 18-49 than the entire Fox News prime time lineup.

Fox News and their viewers like to fancy themselves as either the biggest bad bullies of cable news, or the persecuted victims of a liberal media conspiracy. However, judging from the ratings last night, Fox News has a bigger problem, and she goes by the name of Honey Boo Boo.

Despite airing at 10 PM, and the season finale of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo drew more total viewers in the 18-49 demo than the entire Fox News prime time line up.

America deemed the birth of three thumbed baby Kaitlyn, and the return of Glitzy the pig to be more important than spending an evening with Bill-O, Hannity, and Greta. An audience of 2.756 million tuned in to see the last adventure of Honey Boo Boo’s summer compared to 2.748 million who spent the evening with Fox News.

Honey Boo Boo beat every Fox News prime time program in the 18-49 demo. FNC’s most popular show the O’Reilly Factor drew a 0.4 in the demo. Here Comes Honey Boo drew nearly four times more viewers with a 1.4. Honey Boo Boo child did nearly five times more demo viewers than Sean Hannity’s program. Honey Boo Boo also beat Hannity in total viewers 2.7 million + to 2.5 million +. The reality show phenom also trounced her head to head competition, On The Record with Greta Van Susteren both in the demo, and in total viewers (2.7 million to 2.2 million).

Only Bill O’Reilly drew more total viewers than Honey Boo Boo.

The fact that Honey Boo Boo could crush Fox News during a presidential election year when the right is supposed to be fired up about defeating President Obama speaks volumes about both the power of FNC and the state of Republican enthusiasm for this election. Fox News isn’t the broad sweeping force of nature that the Republican Party makes them out to be. Most of America isn’t watching Fox News.

In fact, the success of Honey Boo Boo is similar to a dynamic that is playing out in the 2012 presidential race. Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is at its heart a feel good show. The show is an upbeat experience. There is no downer, except for when they gave away Glitzy the pig, and unlike Mitt Romney and Fox News, Honey Boo Boo isn’t spreading gloom and doom.

What the Republican Party and their media arms don’t understand is that Americans don’t like gloom and doom. Mitt Romney’s biggest mistake is that he is constantly telling America how horrible everything is. Romney has no optimism. The Republican Party has no optimism, and Fox News is on the air 24/7 driving the dark cloud right into your living room.

Polls show that the number of people who think things are getting better in the country is on the upswing. After more than a decade of terrorism, war, Katrina, and economic collapse our nation is ready for some light at the end of the tunnel.

If Republicans really were fired up about this election, cable news ratings would be going through the roof, but they aren’t. Through a combination of ineptitude and unlikability, Mitt Romney has managed to kill Republican enthusiasm for the 2012 election, and he has taken Fox News down with him.

In short, Money Boo Boo is no match for Honey Boo Boo.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association