Sideshow: There goes 'Honey Boo Boo'

TLC on Friday canceled its absurdly popular reality series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo following reports that the show's feisty matriarch, June "Mama June" Shannon, is romantically involved with an old boyfriend, Mark McDaniel, 53, who was convicted and imprisoned in 2004 for molesting a then-8-year-old child related to her.

Shannon, 35, is the mother of the show's main attraction, 9-year-old child beauty pageant contestant Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson.

TLC has "ended all activities around the series," it said in a statement. TLC "is faithfully committed to the children's ongoing comfort and well being." The channel did not address the allegations directly.

Shannon on Thursday said on Facebook she had had no contact with McDaniel. "I have not seen that person in 10 years," she wrote. "My kids r #1 priority over anything else.

On Friday, she posted a "truth video" as she called it, on Facebook. She acknowledged the show is dead; repeated her claim the reports were untrue, and thanked the show's fans.

TLC's decision comes days after TMZ posted a photo it says is of Shannon, McDaniel, and several friends recently hanging out in a hotel room.

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