The Joe Exotic Miniseries Starring Kate McKinnon Is Coming to NBC, Peacock and USA

The Tiger King miniseries finally has a home. Or three homes. 

While the real Joe Exotic is still in prison, the scripted TV show Joe Exotic has received a straight-to-series order and will officially be airing on NBC, Peacock, and USA. It was reported earlier this year that Kate McKinnon will star as Carole Baskin, but now we’ve got new details about the upcoming limited series.

Per Universal Content Productions, the series follows “Carole Baskin, a big cat enthusiast, who learns that when 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.”

Joe himself has not yet been cast, but it’s clear there are plenty of celebs who might be willing to kill for the role. 

McKinnon will also serve as executive producer, and the series will be written by Etan Frankel, a writer known for Shameless and Sorry For Your Loss. 

The show is actually based on the Wondery podcast Joe Exotic as opposed to Tiger King, the Netflix docuseries. The podcast and the docuseries were both released back in March, right around when the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. Tiger King became a sensation and its subjects—a group of animal lovers and private zoo owners with extremely colorful lives—became viral stars, for better or worse. Carole Baskin is even in talks for Dancing With the Stars, sources tell E! News. 

Keep up with everything we know about the miniseries below! 

Joe Exotic and his gang of misfits have found mega fame with their new Netflix docuseries, but he was first introduced to the world on Wondery’s second season of the podcast Over My Dead Body. The story that the writers at Wondery weaved will be the basis of the new series produced by UCP studios. Together, Wondery’s Hernan Lopez and Marshall Lewy will executive produce the limited series with the help of their star, Kate McKinnon. Etan Frankel will write and executive produce the series, and it will air on NBC, Peacock, and USA. 

Per UCP, “Joe Exotic is a limited series based on true events following Carole Baskin (McKinnon), a big cat enthusiast, who learns that when 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.” 

UCP confirmed the Saturday Night Live star will be playing the divisive Carole Baskin in the limited series. In a statement, Carole called McKinnon “a wonderful actress” and requested that the show use only CGI tigers instead of real ones. 

The Tiger King star wants Channing Tatum or Shia LaBeouf to play him in a scripted adaptation of the Netflix series. “He’s always had a special place in my heart,” Finlay told People of Tatum. “He did a shout-out to my distant cousin; she died of stage-four brain cancer.”

Since Netflix aired the docuseries, more than a few actors have thrown their name into the ring for the role of Joe Exotic. Among those A-listers are Dax Shepard, Edward Norton and others. “If I don’t get cast as Joe Exotic in the eventual biopic, Hollywood is broken,” Dax Shepard tweeted. Meanwhile, some fans think Michael Keaton and Ben Stiller have what it takes to play the controversial figure. Meanwhile, the host of the podcast, Robert Moor, says he thinks Margot Robbie would do a “great job” in the role, but so far no word on if she’s interested.

Will Ferrell, Jim Gaffigan and John C. Reilly are a few of the names that fans believe would be excellent in the role of the mysterious Doc Antle. Justin Long personally nominated Jim Gaffigan, telling Dax Shepard they can “sit next to each other at the Oscars.”

Depending on the timeline, there could be new evidence brought to light in the disappearance of Carole’s husband Don Lewis. The Hillsborough County sheriff wrote on Twitter, “Since @netflix and #Covid19 #Quarantine has made #TigerKing all the rage, I figured it was a good time to ask for new leads.” If this happens, the show could have new info to inspire their script. 

E!, UCP, NBC, Peacock, and USA are all part of the NBCUniversal family.