#trending

Our “What’s Spiking Content” email from Yahoo for Aug. 20 included a topic I had never heard of before: “Honey Boo Boo.”

From Yahoo’s email:

Honey Boo Boo: The phenomenon that is “Honey Boo Boo child” is blowing up the web. The show and child star is one of the top searches on Yahoo! this week. Searches are up more than 43k% this week on Yahoo!. Women love this show, making up 74% of the searches for this show. The videos are spiking off the charts on Yahoo!. The states that search the most for “Honey Boo Boo” are Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas.

Having not heard of Honey Boo Boo before, I did a quick Google search.

Honey Boo Boo is Alana Thompson, a breakout star from TLC’s “Toddlers in Tiaras” show. TLC has debuted a new show focused on Georgia-based Thompson, 6, and her family called “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.”

Here is a video of her from TLC’s website.

I’d really like to hope she’s putting this on for the cameras. Regardless of my opinion, it looks like America is enjoying the show. Entertainment Weekly reported that the premiere of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo ranked No. 1 among all ad-supported cable in its time period among women 25-54/18-49/18-34 and No. 2 among viewers (2.2 million) and persons 25-54/18-49/18-34.

Thompson’s mother, June Shannon, is receiving a lot of flack from online commenters about her parenting skills. There is also a debate of whether this is entertainment or exploitation.

I won’t be watching to determine that. But if you’re curious, tune into “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on TLC.