Joshua Dial, Joe Exotic Among Most Popular ‘Tiger King’ Stars

As more Americans turn to streaming services to occupy their time at home, Netflix Inc. has found its latest hit in “Tiger King,” a true crime documentary series about big cat breeding in the United States. New polling finds that while the bulk of viewers have seen, read or heard mostly negative things about both exotic cat-breeder Joe Exotic and his adversary, animal rights activist Carole Baskin, they are more likely to have a favorable view of Exotic and his associates.

An April 2-4 Morning Consult/The Hollywood Reportersurveyof 2,200 U.S. adults found that 41 percent had seen, read, or heard “a lot” or “some” about the Netflix original, while more than a fifth (22 percent) said they’ve watched some or all of the series.

LightShed’s Rich Greenfield, who has been tracking the series’ popularity on Netflix, reported on April 5 that it had been thetop titlefor 14 straight days, and as of April 8, Netflix still lists the show as No. 1. The series had 34.3 million unique viewers from March 20-29, according to Nielsen data.

Among the 484 respondents who had watched at least some of the series, 47 percent had a favorable view of Exotic, the former owner of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, greater than the 30 percent of “Tiger King” viewers said they had seen, read or heard mostly positive things about him. Half of the viewers said they had heard mostly negative things.

Of the individuals featured on the show, Exotic’s presidential and Oklahoma gubernatorial campaign manager, Joshua Dial, has the highest net favorability -- the share who have a favorable view minus the share who have an unfavorable view -- at 9 points, while Baskin’s net favorability is minus 32 points. Exotic and ex-husband John Finlay both have a net favorability of 7 points.

Despite Baskin’s low favorability, most of those surveyed support legislation pushed by the “Big Cat Rescue” founder: Sixty-nine percent, including 72 percent of “Tiger King” viewers, said they would back a move by the federal government to ban the private possession of big cats such as tigers and lions.

The poll also shows that streaming is on the rise amid the coronavirus pandemic: Fifty-five percent of subscribers said they have watched more movies and TV shows on streaming platforms since health experts recommended social distancing measures last month. And of the 36 percent of adults who said they’ve subscribed to a streaming service since the beginning of the year, 43 percent cited the pandemic as a major or minor reason.

According toThe Hollywood Reporter, more projects like “Tiger King” could be on the way as producers and documentarians seek to create projects from existing footage and one-on-one interviews during the pandemic-induced industry shutdown. However, one more episode of “Tiger King” may be coming first: Jeff Lowe, one of Exotic’s former business partners, said on April 4 via a Twitter video that he is filming a new episode of the show, set to premiere on Netflix this week, but Netflix has yet to confirm the news.