Some Netflix U.S. subscribers have been taken aback by the raunch quotient in the new culture-war soapy thriller series The Hunting Wives, which features a lot more nudity and sex than the average Netflix drama, even more than the streamer’s steamy Regency romance Bridgerton.
That is because most viewers don’t know the series’ unusual history — up until a month and a half ago, the Lionsgate Television-produced The Hunting Wives, starring Malin Åkerman and Brittany Snow, was a Starz limited series awaiting a premiere date on the platform, a plan that was thwarted by Lionsgate and Starz’s split. Starz is known for pushing the boundaries with racy content as exemplified by its tagline, “We’re All Adults Here.”
Another former Starz series that features frequent sex scenes, Hightown, which ran on the then-Lionsgate-owned network for three seasons, also recently launched on Netflix in the U.S. and quickly became a fixture in the streamer’s Daily Top 10 rankings. (There is another connection between the two Lionsgate Television-produced series besides steamy lesbian love scenes: they are both from the same creator/showrunner, Rebecca Cutter, giving her a rare two top-ranked Netflix series in the U.S.)
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The Hunting Wives is different in that it has not been exposed to audiences before. While there have been subtle signs — like the Texas drama launching on a Monday vs. the typical Thursday-Friday release pattern of Netflix scripted series, and not carrying the streamer’s “N” branding at the start of each episode — for the uninitiated viewer who doesn’t read the trades, it looks like a Netflix original, not a last-minute acquisition of a series developed and produced for Starz.
That makes it even more confusing for international subscribers wondering why the show is not on Netflix. As of now, The Hunting Wives is not in many key territories including the UK, Germany and India. That will change soon. (More details in a bit.)
The U.S.-only arrangement is pretty unique. While there are a handful of examples of finished (or almost finished) series that moved to Netflix before their premieres — The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt from NBC, Emily In Paris from Paramount Network, and Ripley from Showtime — they all became global Netflix originals, as did shows that relocated to Netflix after multiple seasons elsewhere like You, Manifest, Lucifer and Designated Survivor. Meanwhile, Netflix has licensed The Hunting Wives exclusively in the U.S with a one-year deal.
The closest comparison would be Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn’s independently produced series Penelope, which was picked up for the U.S. by Netflix after its Sundance Film Festival premiere, with Fremantle subsequently taking global distribution.
Meanwhile, The Hunting Wives is produced by a major studio, Lionsgate TV, which has had a distribution plan in place from the time the series was earmarked for Starz, a largely domestic player, with Lionsgate’s worldwide television group selling the show to international buyers.
The series is already available on Stan in Australia, Crave in Canada, OSN in the Middle East and HOT in Israel. Deadline can reveal that Lionsgate has sold the series in 10 additional territories, including the UK, Germany, France, Italy and India, where it will launch soon. Netflix is not the buyer in any of them, sources said, making the show a strictly domestic play for the global streamer — at least for now.
Maybe because it was initially designed for a domestic outlet in Starz, The Hunting Wives, an adaptation of May Cobb’s bestselling novel, includes U.S.-specific cultural references that reflect the current political divide between “MAGA country” and the “Coastal elite,” with themes like guns and abortion explored and terms like the infamous Hillary Clinton “deplorables” slip peppered in.
The Hunting Wives tells the story of Sophie (Snow) and her family’s move from the East Coast to deep East Texas, where she succumbs to socialite Margo Bank’s (Åkerman) irresistible charms – and finds her life consumed by obsession, seduction and murder.
Deadline reported last month that as part of Lionsgate and Starz’s separation agreement, which went into effect May 7, Lionsgate Television negotiated the acquisition of The Hunting Wives‘ rights back from Starz as studio executives felt there was a better opportunity for a multi-season run on another platform versus the limited series envisioned by Starz.
Indeed, while The Hunting Wives could work as a limited series, its finale sets up a potential second season of a battle royale between Margo and Sophie.
Lionsgate’s bet may be paying off for now — despite being only available in the U.S., The Hunting Wives landed on Netflix’s Weekly Top 10 English-language series list at No. 3 with 5.2 million views for its first week since debuting on the platform July 21. And Netflix labels it as a Season 1, not a limited series, as it did with Untamed, whose ratings success just secured it a second-season pickup.
As of now, The Hunting Wives remains a Netflix U.S. exclusive under a one-year licensing deal. If it leads to a Season 2 renewal, The Hunting Wives would be breaking more ground — and not only of the content boundary-pushing kind.