The bingo card of weird twists you could make for a show like Netflix’s “Tiger King” is already pretty stacked. But if you happen to find room to include “news of a new episode will be broken by a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and his wife,” then you probably just won.
As you are no doubt aware by now in some form, “Tiger King” is a seven-episode docuseries that follows the travails of Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, a.k.a. Joe Exotic, an exotic animal park owner from Oklahoma, whose flamboyant and hotheaded nature puts him on a collision course with Carole Baskin, owner of Big Cat Rescue. It is full of twists, turns, plot developments, and wild characters that you wouldn’t think could actually coexist in the real world. MILD SPOILER: The story ends with Exotic in prison serving a 22-year sentence in federal prison for attempting to hire a hitman to kill Baskin as well as for animal cruelty.
So it’s the kind of story that is still playing out, in a way, as all of the people from the documentary now find themselves back in the spotlight and dealing with the fallout.
There have been “Tiger King” memes. There have been “Tiger King” quizzes. There have been “Tiger King” rankings. And there have been so many “Tiger King” podcast episodes. One such episode was recently made by Kourtney Turner, wife of Los Angeles Dodgers’ third baseman Justin Turner. A recent episode of “Holding Kourt” dove deep in the show and it’s wacky participants.
https://twitter.com/court_with_a_K/status/1244734356146384896
That episode apparently made it’s way to Jeff Lowe and Lauren Lowe, who are now the owners of Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park. In the documentary, Lowe became a benefactor for Exotic and the park but eventually took over as owner (and had plenty of seedy baggage of his own). After listening to the podcast, the Lowes made a video and sent it to the Turners. In it, they claim that a new episode of “Tiger King” is coming “next week.”
https://twitter.com/redturn2/status/1246499984658157568
If this is true, we’re guessing Lowe just blew up Netflix’s preexisting plan for his own self-benefit, which seems so unlike him…
Deadline reached out to Netflix to confirm if this was true but did not get a response. However, Netflix did start teasing a new series of interviews with Joe Exotic from jail that infers there will be more to come in this story.
Joe Exotic was interviewed from prison on March 22.
Here's what he told us pic.twitter.com/ueqTeWfKxh
— Netflix (@netflix) April 3, 2020
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.