Amid a slower summer TV season, audiences have absolutely devoured one show: “The Hunting Wives,” a salacious drama series from Lionsgate TV and 3 Arts Entertainment that explores the scandalous and secret-ridden world of Texas housewives.
Up until two months ago, the show was slated to premiere on Starz before making an unexpected switch to Netflix — and the move certainly paid off. The Brittany Snow and Malin Akerman-led series debuted as the streamer’s third most-watched TV title with 5.2 million views the week of July 21 and grew in its second week to 5.8 million views, coming second only to the Eric Bana-led hit “Untamed.”
The impressive viewership for “The Hunting Wives” — coupled with its undeniable touch on pop culture — marks a big win for Lionsgate TV Group Chair and Chief Creative Officer Kevin Beggs, who first saw the potential in the show from writer-showrunner Rebecca Cutter.
“We always felt that if viewers found it, it could break out,” Beggs told TheWrap. “When you have a platform as big as Netflix … that gives you every chance to succeed. That’s what every producer and supplier like us dreams about.”
“The Hunting Wives” was greenlit to series by Starz in October 2023, fitting into the network’s female-centric titles like “Three Women” and “Outlander.” But the separation of Lionsgate and Starz, which was approved by shareholders in April, prompted Beggs and the Lionsgate TV team to think about where the series could best thrive. (It’s also been reported that Lionsgate TV was envisioning a multi-season run for “The Hunting Wives,” while Starz planned it as a limited series.)
When it came time for Lionsgate TV to express interest in buying back the rights to “The Hunting Wives” to then sell to Netflix, Beggs said the discussion between both parties was “amicable.”
“Everybody collaborated very creatively and in the spirit of partnership that we always had, from the first day that we came together as a company to the last day that we were together and now standing alone,” Beggs said. “I think the outcome has worked out well for everyone.”
The ink was dry by early June, just a month and a half ahead of the July 21 debut on Netflix, giving the Lionsgate TV team only a few weeks to grow awareness for the show’s new streaming home. This lead to what Beggs calls a “guerrilla marketing campaign” from the studio’s marketing and publicity teams to promote “The Hunting Wives,” which included leveraging social media influencers and a push on Lionsgate’s YouTube, FAST and AVOD channels.
That sort of push from the studio side is unusual, as networks/streamers tend to direct promotion while studios provide complementary support, but the limited-time frame situation called for a unique solution.
“We felt that it was important that we dive in,” Beggs said.
Beggs said Netflix also “jumped on in a huge way” post-release, adding a splashy billboard on Sunset Boulevard to bring awareness to the show. “They’ve been amplifying, complementing and reinforcing the message,” Beggs said.
The grass-roots campaign, paired with much word-of-mouth from fans, boosted “The Hunting Wives” to the top of Netflix’s charts, and has left audiences wanting more.
“There’s a lot of adjectives thrown around about shows that break out, but sometimes, a noisy, wildly commercial, and a little dose of shock and awe thrown in in the middle of summer — I call it kind of a visual beach read — is very well timed,” Beggs said. “There was a reason that there was a competitive bidding to get it.”
After the Season 1 finale, finishing with a cliffhanger that sets up a new dynamic between Sophie (Snow) and Margo (Akerman), Beggs said Lionsgate TV and Netflix are “having discussions about a second season,” but remained tight-lipped about any other details regarding those conversations.
The win for “The Hunting Wives” comes just weeks after a successful Emmy nomination morning for Lionsgate TV’s “The Studio,” which scored 23 nods for Apple TV+, breaking the record for most comedy nominations in a single year and becoming the most-nominated freshman comedy. (Apple has not released viewership data for “The Studio” to date, and it did not appear on the Nielsen streaming charts during its first season.)
The critical acclaim for “The Studio” marks a different type of success than the commercial popularity of “The Hunting Wives,” but Beggs still underscored the cost-benefit analysis he and his team employ when looking for a home for their shows. “On a giant platform, you have to have a giant number to be relevant, and on a smaller platform, your big splash is more meaningful,” he said.
The common tie between “The Hunting Wives” and “The Studio” for Beggs is that they’re both “noisy and lean-forward television,” with the “compelling and propulsive murder mystery” in “The Hunting Wives” feeling just as addictive as the splashy shenanigans and cameos in “The Studio.” Series, he said, “have to have some compelling must-watch [factor] now … or they’re easily lost in a sea of shows.”
