Carole Baskin Slams ‘Tiger King’ Filmmakers on Heels of Season 2 Reveal

Netflix finally confirmed plans to make a second season of Tiger King, and Carole Baskin is not happy about it. Baskin, who previously accused filmmakers Rebecca Chaiklin and Eric Goode of misleading her when they asked her to participate in the first season, told Variety she wanted Chaiklin and Goode to “lose my number.” She called the original Tiger King series a “reality show dumpster fire.”

Baskin, who was the target of the alleged murder-for-hire plot that Joe Exotic was jailed for, told Variety she was aware that Chaiklin and Goode were filming more content for Tiger King 2, but she did not think they would be finished so soon. “I know some people who have been involved in it and they were doing more filming, so I assumed at some point they would come out with a Tiger King 2,” Baskin explained. “It took them five years to put together the first one, so I thought it would be a lot longer.”

Chaiklin and Goode tried to “clear the air” with Baskin after the original Tiger King series debuted in March 2020. She wanted nothing to do with them, telling them to “lose my number because that was not at all what we had agreed we were working on,” she told Variety. “I wouldn’t call Eric Goode or Rebecca Chaiklin true documentarians. I mean that was just a reality show dumpster fire.”

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness became an unexpected smash hit for Netflix in March 2020, as it was released just as the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns began. The seven-episode series focused on Joseph Maldonado-Passage, an eccentric Oklahoma zookeeper better known as Joe Exotic, and his rivalry with Baskin. Exotic is now in prison after he was convicted on 17 federal animal abuse charges and two counts of attempted murder for hire for his plot to kill Baskin, who tried to shut down his operation. Baskin was critical of the show from the moment it was released, accusing Chaiklin and Goode of focusing on the sensational aspects of the story. She was also not happy that one entire episode focused on Exotic’s claims that Baskin killed her second husband, Don Lewis, allegations she denied.

“My phone started ringing off the hook for three months straight, people cursing at me and telling me that they wanted to burn the place to the ground and they wanted to kill me and my family and the cats,” Baskin told Variety. “So whatever Tiger King 2 does, I’ll have that same reaction from the public that has been misled. I’ll have to spend a lot of time explaining to them how they have been misled, which means I have to watch it.”

Baskin suggested people watch Michael Webber’s documentary The Conservation Game, which she says tackles the big cat crisis better than Tiger King did. She does not think Chaiklin and Goode will do a better job with Tiger King 2. “Why would I believe them? They’ve already shown who they are,” she said. “They can’t back off of that ledge.”