Joel McHale and Ken Jeong’s Carole Baskin Interview on FOX Leaves NYE 2021 Viewers Stunned

Tiger King star Carole Baskin was interviewed by Joel McHale and Ken Jeong on Fox’s New Year’s Eve special on Thursday night, making viewers “uncomfortable.” The 59-year-old nature preservationist made frank references to the scandals that have rocked her personal life, sparing no detail for the conventional TV broadcast. Viewers thought that even McHale and Jeong seemed perturbed by Baskin’s attitude.

Baskin appeared via video chat to talk to McHale and Jeong on New Year’s Eve, looking back on the year where she became a household name. When Jeong asked her what it was like to suddenly become so recognizable, Baskin jumped straight to an answer about Joe Exotic’s murder-for-hire plot against her, detailed in Netflix’s Tiger King: Mayhem, Murder and Madness. She said that when people approach her in public: “it’s so weird, because of the combined fear of them being hitmen and not knowing them from the paparazzi.”

“Every time people are running up to me, I don’t know if they’re running up to kill me or running up to take a selfie with me,” Baskin said. It was hard to tell if Baskin was trying to make light of her situation, but even if she was the tone struck the hosts and the viewers wrong.

“Wow, that’s not a dark answer at all!” Jeong laughed sarcastically. “We’ll just avoid the whole hitman motif on 8 p.m. easter standard time here on Fox.” McHale added: “It’s not like we’re dressed like hitmen,” gesturing towards the tuxedos he and Jeong wore.

McHale later said on the broadcast that Baskin “murdered” the interview — a double-entendre that seemed to reference the long-standing rumors that Baskin murdered her previous husband. Fans spent hours trying to decide whether McHale made that joke on purpose or had it planned out ahead of time. Here is a look at what fans are saying about Baskin’s “dark” New Year’s Eve interview.

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