Tag: Tiger King

Carole Baskin’s first ‘Dancing with the Stars’ dance is over-the-top tiger-themed

Not a great first dance for the star.

Tiger King star Carole Baskin is a part of this year’s Dancing with the Stars cast, and her first dance — a paso doble with partner Pasha Pashkov — might as well have had all the cool cats and kittens included in it.

It started with Pashkov in a cage wearing tiger print pants. He came out to a background with a giant tiger head on the stage and one projected on the floor, followed by the pair dancing to … Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. Moves included a tiger claw and roar. Think there’s a theme going on here? It’s a little much, but then again, so was Tiger King.

Baskin received just an 11 out of 30 from the judges.

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‘Tiger King’ star Jeff Lowe says he’s getting his own show

A follow-up ‘Tiger King’ reality series is in the works.

“Tiger King” mania feels so long ago now, but there have been several interesting developments in the exotic animal world since the Netflix documentary series became a mega-hit in March.

Last Monday, Joe Exotic’s sworn enemy Carole Baskin was awarded control of the G.W. Exotic Animal Memorial zoo, after finding that Exotic had fraudulently transferred ownership of the zoo to avoid losing it to Baskin years ago.

Meanwhile, Jeff Lowe is in the process of moving all of the animals from Exotic’s former zoo to a new animal park in Oklahoma. According to Lowe, a new reality TV show focusing on the end of Exotic’s park and the start of Lowe’s new Tiger King Park is in the works. Lowe told People Magazine that he and his wife Lauren have signed a deal for a reality show.

Via People:

“It’ll be our narrative on the Tiger King with evidence to support our sides of the stories. And it will be about the transfer of all these beautiful animals from Joe’s facility to the new facility,” says Jeff, who is set to open a new zoo — Tiger King Park — in Thackerville, Oklahoma, this fall. “And then the day-to-day struggle of running something as big as a 60-acre animal park and all the intricacies of the employment of zookeepers and fighting all of the animal rights groups.”

According to Lowe, the show will illustrate that it’s possible to safely and humanely operate a big cat park, and he calls his new site the “greatest Tiger Park the world has ever seen.”

Personally, Lowe wouldn’t have ranked near the top of my list for potential spinoff lead characters. Give us more Erik Cowie, TV executives.

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Carole Baskin has been awarded control of Joe Exotic’s zoo in latest, wild ‘Tiger King’ twist

This actually happened.

It’s been an absolutely nightmarish past week, and it feels like eons ago when we were all sitting around trading memes and shocked tweets about Tiger King, the Netflix true crime documentary about a group of big cat collectors and those who ran zoos and sanctuaries.

And yes, there are many, many, MANY more important things going on right now.

There is, however, a strange twist to the end of the series to report: Carole Baskin, the sanctuary owner of Big Cat Rescue in Florida, has been handed the zoo that belonged to Joe Exotic (whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage), who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for violations of the Endangered Species Act, falsifying wildlife records and for murder-for-hire for attempting to pay someone to kill Baskin.

Courthouse News reports a federal judge gave Baskin control of Exotic’s zoo — which is now run by Jeff Lowe — because he found that the property had been fraudulently transferred in order for Exotic to avoid paying Baskin $1 million he owed Baskin in a trademark suit.

It’s quite a bizarre twist given how much the documentary focused on Exotic’s hatred and frequent public attacks of Baskin.

The only word we’ve heard from Exotic on the matter are these tweets from a Twitter account claiming it’s his, which isn’t verified:

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What we learned from the disappointing extra episode of ‘Tiger King’

This was a major letdown.

“Tiger King” has become a worldwide phenomenon during the coronavirus pandemic, and the wild docuseries added an extra chapter over the weekend with the release of “The Tiger King and I.”

In the special, which features short interviews with Erik Cowie, Jeff and Lauren Lowe, John Reinke, John Finlay, Kelci “Saff” Saffery, Joshua Dial and Rick Kirkham, the people who knew Joe Exotic the best reflected on the outcome of his court case, and on how their own lives have changed amid Tiger King-mania.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the extra episode has a very low-budget setup. Joel McHale conducts video interviews that serve mostly as an excuse for McHale to crack as many jokes as he can, and there are absolutely no shocking tiger footage or mind-bending twists – the main reasons the show became a smash hit in the first place. The cast members fans likely want to hear from the most – Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin – do not make appearances. In all, “The Tiger King And I” is very skippable, and doesn’t come close to matching the entertainment value of the docuseries.

There are a few interesting takeaways, however. Here are all the notable things we learned in “The Tiger King and I.”

1. No one is on Joe’s side

It’s difficult to root for any of the main characters of Tiger King, but none of the people McHale interviewed felt that Joe Exotic was unfairly jailed for his behavior.

Saff pointed out that Joe did plenty of good deeds that weren’t necessarily highlighted by the show, such as his Thanksgiving dinner, but no one is calling for Joe to be released from prison. Erik Cowie, for one, didn’t mince words.

“He’s going to die in there. Good riddance.”

2. John Finlay now has teeth and some ridiculous facial hair

Finlay, one of Joe’s ex-husbands, is best remembered for being shirtless all the time and generally looking like a NHL bruiser in the dental department. He’s now got a new set of teeth, and looks great!

3. Saff identifies as male and was misgendered in the show

Kelci “Saff” Saffery was one of the heroes of the series, and tragically lost his arm in an accident with a tiger. Saff is referred to as “she” throughout the series, but said that he wasn’t particularly bothered by not being portrayed accurately in the show.

“I don’t think it bothered me as much as it bothered everybody else. I didn’t really pay it any mind.”

4. Rick Kirkham has some heartbreaking Joe stories

Kirkham is the producer who was filming a Joe Exotic reality show but lost all of his footage when Exotic’s studio burned down. He shared some incredibly dark stories, and said that while Exotic claimed that he only euthanized tigers that were sick or injured, he witnessed Exotic kill two healthy cats simply to free up cage space.

Kirkham also recalled a time when a woman brought her horse to Exotic’s zoo and asked if he could take the horse and allow it to live on his grounds. Exotic agreed and told the woman the horse would have a great life at his zoo, but as soon as she left, Exotic shot the horse and fed it to his tigers.

5. Joe Exotic is “terrified” of big cats

Kirkham also said that the “Tiger King” is, in fact, absolutely terrified of big cats.

“In the shots that you see in there, where he’s in with the two tigers, the white one and the other one. The white one is blind and the other one is on tranquilizers.”

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Of course somebody made a Tiger Woods and ‘Tiger King’ mashup

I saw a Tiger.

I knew it from the moment I saw Tiger King — the off-the-wall true crime documentary people are watching on Netflix and that has turned into countless memes — exploded in popularity.

Someone was going to do a mashup of something from the series with Tiger Woods.

It wasn’t going to be me, I have zero skills in video editing. But here are, in the middle of what was supposed to be Masters week, and we have a video of the Joe Exotic song, I Saw a Tiger and the golfer winning last year at Augusta. And it’s pretty great, I’d say.

(Thanks to Golf Digest for sharing.)

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‘Tiger King’ villain Jeff Lowe says Netflix is dropping an extra episode

The ‘Tiger King’ saga isn’t over yet, according to Jeff Lowe.

Netflix docuseries “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” has become essential quarantine viewing in recent weeks, and given how many absurd twists and turns occurred in the unbelievable storyline, fans of the show were left with plenty of questions after finishing the final episode. According to one of the show’s many villains, current Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park CEO Jeff Lowe, Netflix will release an extra episode very soon.

Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, of all people, broke the news on Twitter. Jeff Lowe and his wife, Lauren, recorded a video for Turner and his wife Kourtney, and claimed that Netflix was coming to film at the Oklahoma zoo for an episode to be released “next week.”

Netflix has not announced any upcoming additional episodes – but did recently share a snippet of a recent interview with Joe Exotic from jail.

There’s obviously more from Joe that was not shown in the short video, and it would be kind of strange for Netflix to go to the lengths to film an interview to only release an 82-second Twitter video, so perhaps more Tiger King really is on the way.

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The best ‘Tiger King’ memes from #DescribeTigerKingIn5Words

Twitter users summed up Netflix’s wild documentary series Tiger King perfectly.

Netflix’s true crime documentary series ‘Tiger King’ has taken over the internet, and if you haven’t seen the show yet, you’re missing out on one of the wildest, most unbelievable experiences you can possibly have watching television. Tiger King delivers so many absurd twists and turns, and offers a fascinating glimpse into a deranged world where seemingly every character is profoundly flawed in their own way. You really should go watch it right now.

On Saturday, fans of the show tried to best describe ‘Tiger King’ in just five words on Twitter in a hashtag challenge. Here are the best efforts:

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Why Georgia coach Kirby Smart ‘couldn’t stomach’ Tiger King

Kirby Smart is decidedly not a fan of Joe Exotic.

Tiger King is everywhere. Seemingly everyone has watched the Netflix true crime docuseries, officially titled Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, while they’re cooped up inside and practicing social distancing or self-quarantining — or sheltering in place, depending on varying statewide orders — during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Well, Georgia football coach Kirby Smart was among the many people looking for an entertaining show, but he’s decidedly not a fan of Tiger King, which is famously outrageous, compelling and appalling and centered around a guy named Joe Exotic.

Smart said during a media conference call Tuesday that he started the seven-episode documentary, but he just couldn’t make it through the first two. As he explained:

“I was like dying for shows to watch while I was doing self-quarantine, and I got through two episodes, I just couldn’t do it, man. I couldn’t stomach it. And everybody continues to talk about it, but my patience wears thin. I’m looking for a little more plot, a little more — I don’t know what the right word is. But that’s not my cup of tea. I’ll just say that. I’m more of “Ozark” guy.”

Smart said he prefers another Netflix show, which recently released its third season. And that’s fair because Tiger King isn’t for everyone — even if everyone can’t stop talking about it.

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Shaquille O’Neal explains the story behind his ‘Tiger King’ cameo

“I was just a visitor.”

Let me just get this out of the way: I am one of about 10 people or so who still hasn’t seen Tiger King, the Netflix true crime series about a big cat preserve owned by a dude nicknamed “Joe Exotic” that has become a social media sensation.

I know, I know. I’ve had other stuff to catch up on from this list of Netflix originals … but I’m burying the lede here. Although I haven’t seen it for myself, I saw that Shaquille O’Neal made a cameo, and from what I can tell, maybe being associated with Joe Exotic probably isn’t the best thing.

Shaq has appeared on Exotic’s YouTube show:

In a recent episode of his podcast, O’Neal addressed his connection with Joe Exotic, as transcribed by NESN:

“So we go in there, and it’s a beautiful place, and the character that was there was Exotic Joe. We’re there and I dropped some donations for the tigers’ foods and all that,” O’Neal said. “We take pictures with (the) tigers. We went back a couple times.

“Then we go back another time and we found out that he’s involved with all the stuff, and then, actually, I stopped going.”

Added O’Neal: “I don’t harm tigers. I love tigers. I love white tigers. Do I put donations to these zoos to help these tigers out? I do it all the time. Do I own tigers personally at my house? No. But I love tigers. Listen, people are going to make their own opinions, but, again, I was just a visitor. I met this guy — not my friend. Don’t know him. Never had any business dealings with him, and I had no idea any of that stuff was going on.”

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