‘Tiger King’: Netflix Premiering After Show Hosted by ‘Community’ Star Joel McHale

Netflix is cashing in on the popularity of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness by launching an after-show featuring new interviews with many of the people who appeared in the series. The new show will be hosted by former Community actor and The Soup host Joel McHale, who appeared in the streaming giant‘s video announcement. The talk show will premiere on April 12.

“There’s a documentary series on Netflix called Tiger King,” McHale said in the clip. “I highly recommend watching all seven episodes. On April 12, Netflix will release an 8th installment called: The Tiger King and I. It’s an aftershow hosted by me. I talked to a lot of people involved in the project – Jeff and Lauren Lowe, Saff, Erik Cowie, John Finlay, John Reinke and Rick Kirkham – to see what’s happened in their lives since the release of the series. It’s eye-opening and hopefully funny. So watch The Tiger King and I, April 12 on Netflix.”

The original Tiger King series ran seven episodes and was directed by Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin. It centers on the story of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as “Joe Exotic,” who bred tigers at his zoo in Oklahoma. Maldonado-Passage’s rivalry with Carole Baskin, the owner of Big Cat Rescue in Florida, became the documentary’s focus. Maldonado-Passage is now serving a 22-year prison sentence for hiring someone to kill Baskin and violations of the Endangered Species Act.

The series was released in full on March 20. Since millions of Americans are at home during the coronavirus pandemic, it has become one of Netflix’s biggest original hits. This week, Nielsen told Variety the series drew 34.3 million unique viewers within its first 10 days, beating Stranger Things Season 2.

With that kind of success, it was only a matter of time before Netflix would find some way to build onto the original series. Last week, Jeff Lowe, Maldonado-Passage’s former business partner who eventually took control of his zoo, said in a podcast there would be another episode. It is not clear if he meant the McHale-hosted aftershow or another documentary episode.

Notably, Baskin is not involved in the aftershow. She said she was not happy with her depiction in the series, even though she was interviewed several times during its making. The series dedicated an entire episode to Maldonado-Passage’s belief Baskin killed her second husband, Jack Lewis, who went missing in 1997.