‘Dancing With the Stars Juniors’: Honey Boo Boo Fans Praise Her ‘Great Job’ in Debut

Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson made her dancing debut on ABC‘s Dancing With The Stars: Juniors, making the show must-see television event for her fans.

Alana shot to fame on Toddlers & Tiaras, then got her own show with Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. She now stars on Mama June: From Not to Hot, a WE tv series centering on her mother Mama June Thompson.

Thompson danced a salsa to “Conga” by Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine with her junior pro dancer, Tristan Ianiero; and the help of mentor, Artem Chigvintsev.

The judges were surprisingly pleased with Alana’s performance. Even choreographer Mandy Moore praised her for showing everyone how she is always “living her best life.” Val Chmerkovskiy said he was most impressed with her confidence, but wanted her to dance with her partner more.

Moore and Chmerkovsky gave Alana 6’s, while Adam Rippon gave her a 7, for a total of 19 out of 30.

Before her dance Alana told Good Housekeeping that dancing was no easy task for her.

“It was a little hard to get down the steps, and get the numbers and the counts down,” she said told the magazine. “It took me a whole entire day to learn the counts because it was so hard. [At first] I didn’t get that you had to count to the music.”

Even though she started to get a hang of dancing, she said it never got easier, “It actually got a lot harder” and she was “nervous all the time” before she started dancing on the stage.

Despite the challenges, Alana said she felt “so great” about her dancing because of the support she received from her mom and sisters Anna, Lauryn and Jessica. She also became friends with fellow contestants Mackenzie Ziegler and Ariana Greenblatt.

“I’ve changed a lot. I can call myself a dancer now, and I never thought I could call myself a dancer,” she said.

Alana also became “best friends” with Tristan. “I didn’t think our chemistry was going to be super amazing, but then we actually started dancing and practicing, and our chemistry was amazing,” she told Good Housekeeping.

Fans at home were surprised by Alana’s performance on the dance floor. Many of them joked that Honey Boo Boo was the only reason to watch the show.

One person was even embarrassed to be so excited.

Reviews from Honey Boo Boo’s fans were also positive.

New episodes of Dancing With The Stars: Juniors air on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo credit: ABC