How Much Do They Earn: Here Comes Honey Boo Boo Cast Gets A Raise

October 1, 2012 by Hollywoodite

Last month, The Hollywood Reporter’s sources claimed the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo cast were paid in the region of “$2,000 and $4,000 an episode, possibly seeing as much as $40,000 for the 10-episode debut season,” which doesn’t include a “small location fee… to film in the family home.” That figure was quickly dismissed as too paltry by TMZ.com who asked June “Mama” Shannon, the show’s matriarch, whether the numbers were true to which she was incredulous over the phone although she refused to offer specifics.

And now TMZ’s sources claim the family “received between $5,000 and $7,000 an episode at the beginning of the series,” which seems like a nitpicking, pissy distinction from THR’s figures which TMZ poo pooed only weeks earlier. However, the distinction reportedly comes from the four-figure salary being increased to five-figures immediately after the first episode.

After season one episode two, “the increase gave them somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 an episode,” which didn’t include generous expenses such as ”a bodyguard/driver for Sugar Bear, who was incapacitated after his ATV accident.” TLC also reportedly offered to help the family larger, more secure home but the family is rooted in the community and didn’t want to leave.

The family is also turning down lucrative offers because money is not their main objective, says Mama, who’s repeatedly stated that she’s not exploiting her daughter, seven-year-old Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson. Mama, for example, “worried if she signs with an agent that person will talk her into making various appearances that will take her away from her family.”