14 DAY TRIAL // TLC has severed ties with Honey Boo Boo’s family last year, after it emerged that the matriarch, Mama June, had been in touch with a convicted child abuser. However, the family is still under contract until the end of May, and the network is determined to go to court to keep them off TV until then.
The fam is now in LA, shopping another reality series and doing appearances on other shows; just last week, Mama June brought Honey Boo Boo, now severely overweight at 9 years old, on The Doctors on CBS, in the hope of getting her to eat healthier and shed some weight.
That won’t happen if TLC has a say in it.
TLC vs. its former star family
Shortly after news broke that Mama June and the fam were in town to negotiate business deals and to test the market to see if they could launch a singing career for Honey Boo Boo, TLC bosses fired off a warning to them, telling them that they were still under contract until the end of May.
As part of the contract, the network paid insurance and certain expenses for all members of the family, and tuition for the girls, but also the salary for the episodes of season 5 that were shot and will never air.
Again, as part of the contract, the family gave exclusivity to TLC, with this part of the deal standing even though they were no longer making appearances or shooting with the network, which is the case now.
Getting another reality show or even getting Honey Boo Boo into pop music stood in violation of the contract, TLC lawyers said, threatening to sue the family for the last penny.
Mama June takes a stand
A new development suggests that Mama June stands her ground in this dispute. She is “laughing off” the threats from TLC by saying they’re free to do whatever they want because the network breached the contract first.
“The family claims their health insurance hasn't been paid since November - which was part of their contract - so they no longer believe they should answer to TLC,” TMZ reports. “But our network sources claim the deal only required TLC to pay through 2014 - which it says was covered in full. For extra generosity, the network claims it agreed to pay for the family's insurance this year too, up until May.”
The network says it intends to pay up, but it never got the chance until then. So the family should respect the deal as well.
While this is going on, even former fans of the now-defunct TLC show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo are saying that Mama June and her lot shouldn’t get a second chance, let alone another go at a successful career in reality television.
Mama June had relations, bought a car and lent money to a man, an ex-boyfriend, who was released from prison this year, after serving 10 years for forcing himself on an 8-year-old child. That child was Mama June’s own daughter.
To make matters ever worse, when she got caught and exposed in the media, she tried to lie her way out of trouble, even claiming the photos proving the affair had been photoshopped.