It stars John Cameron Mitchell, Kate McKinnon, Kyle MacLachlan, Dean Winters, Brian Van Holt, William Fichtner, Nat Wolff, Sam Keeley, Lex Mayson, Joel Marsh Garland, Marlo Kelly, Kenneth Radley and Aliandra Calabrese.

In March 2020, following the commercial success of the Netflix series Tiger King, development started on a limited series adaptation of Carole Baskin's life, headed by Universal Content Productions, with Kate McKinnon executive producing and portraying Baskin, and is based on Joe Exotic: Tiger King, later retitled to Joe vs Carole, which is the second season of Wondery's Over My Dead Body podcast.

[11] In the same month, Kyle MacLachlan, Lex Mayson, Joel Marsh Garland, Marlo Kelly, and Aliandra Calabrese joined the series, to portray Howard Baskin, Kelci "Saff" Saffery, James Garretson, Jamie Murdock, and Lauren Lowe respectively.

[12][13] In September 2021, Will McNeill, Jack Scott, Jenna Owen, Nic English, Benedict Hardie, Shareena Clanton, Alexandra Jensen, and Anthony Sharpe were revealed to have been added to the supporting cast during production, to portray Tyler, Joshua Dial, Amber, Brian Rhyne, Agent Thomas, Susan, Chealsi, and Erik Cowie, respectively.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Kate McKinnon and John Cameron Mitchell do an admirable job of bringing these larger-than-life figures back down to earth, but Joe vs. Carole feels like a pale retread of an already overdone tale.