Development on the limited series began in March 2020 following the commercial success of Netflix's Tiger King documentary series, with Universal Content Productions heading the project.

The series is based on 'Joe Exotic: Tiger King', the second season of Wondery's Over My Dead Body podcast, which was later retitled Joe vs Carole to match the show.

The show was originally expected to air across NBC, Peacock, and USA Network, but in May 2021 it was announced it would instead stream exclusively on Peacock.

Dennis Quaid was originally cast in June 2021 to play Rick Kirkham, but he was replaced by William Fichtner in July 2021.

Kate McKinnon not only starred as Carole Baskin but also served as an executive producer on the series.

Filming took place around Queensland, Australia, including Screen Queensland Studios, which was used to double for the real-life settings of Oklahoma and Florida.

Due to her filming commitments on Joe vs. Carole, Kate McKinnon was unable to appear in the first seven episodes of season 47 of Saturday Night Live in October 2021.

The series received mixed reviews, holding a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 27 reviews and a Metacritic score of 53 out of 100 based on 17 critics.