'Honey Boo Boo' and Bill Clinton's DNC Speech Tie in Ratings

After trumping individual cable and network coverage of the Republican National Convention in the key demographic, the TLC series takes its first hit and only ties the night's strongest news coverage (CNN) among adults 18-49.

2:43 PM PDT 9/6/2012
by Michael O'Connell

(HollywoodReporter.Com) - What goes up must, eventually, come down -- and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is no exception. The TLC series just saw its rising ratings take a hit for the first time since premiering a month ago.

Wednesday's installment of the zeitgeisting reality show pulled in 2.4 million viewers, a 20 percent drop from the previous week, according to Nielsen overnight ratings. It still stands as the series' second-highest audience in its five-episode history.

In the key adults 18-49 demographic, Honey Boo Boo took a smaller hit, falling just over nine percent (a tenth of a point) to a 1.1 adults rating.

That's hardly a major hit for the show, but it doesn't have the same bragging rights it did last week, besting all individual broadcasts of the Republican National Convention among adults 18-49 during the 10 p.m. hour.

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. (Aggregate coverage of the DNC clearly eclipsed Honey Boo Boo by all measurements, and DNC ratings reflect the entire 10 p.m. hour, with Honey Boo Boo only airing from 10 to 10: 30 p.m.)

That combination of football and the DNC saw dips across the board at 10 p.m. and over the course of the night. So while Honey Boo Boo may still be an unexpected ratings juggernaut, she apparently isn't infallible.