Tiger King Joe Exotic Series Starring Kate McKinnon Gets Series Order At NBC

The Tiger King TV series starring Kate McKinnon as Joe Exotic’s rival Carole Baskin is now moving forward at NBC. NBCUniversal has reportedly given the limited series a multi-platform order, with plans for it to air on NBC, USA Network, and the Peacock streaming service. Etan Frankel (Friday Night Lights, Shameless, Animal Kingdom) will serve as writer and executive producer of the series (McKinnon will also serve as EP). The series will focus on Carole Baskin learning of Joe Exotic’s competing business running a showcase for exotic big cats, which begins a dangerous rivalry between the two – one that eventually turns deadly.

Here’s the full breakdown of the this NBC Tiger King series (via Variety):

“Based on the Wondery Podcast of the same name, the show centers on Carole Baskin (McKinnon), a big cat enthusiast, who learns that fellow exotic animal lover Joe “Exotic” Schreibvogel is breeding and using his big cats for profit. She sets out to shut down his venture, inciting a quickly escalating rivalry. But Carole has a checkered past of her own and when the claws come out, Joe will stop at nothing to expose what he sees as her hypocrisy. The results prove dangerous.”

If you are not keeping track, the Tiger King series has been one of the biggest breakouts of 2020. The docu-series first aired on Netflix in March, and quickly became a mainstream pop-culture sensation. The weird world of exotic big cat zoos (and the even weirder people who run them) has since blown up into an entire sprawling multi-media franchise. On the television front alone, this Kate McKinnon series is just one Tiger King project in development; another starring Nicolas Cage in the Joe Exotic origin story is also in the works at CBS. There’s even a Tiger King comic book series that expands the entire world of the series by depicting more backstory for major characters like Joe and Carole, and even interviews and developments that occurred after the Netflix docu-series.

In short: Tiger King is just getting started as a major franchise.

In real life, the drama is still playing out, as well. Carloe Baskin and Jeff Lowe have seen new legal and/or business troubles pop up since the series aried; while Joe Exotic has been campaigning to get his prison sentence overturned – a plea that has reached as high as the White House. So again: Netflix’s Tiger King literally and figuratively was just the beginning of this franchise. It’s going to only get weirder.

Tiger King is streaming on Netflix. The TV series doesn’t have a known production start or air date.