The bridge from Netflix’s Tiger King series in 2020 to a new unscripted series premiering on Saturday (Nov. 13) featuring Carole Baskin was just one Instagram message.

Adam Reed, Thinkfactory Media CEO, tells Realscreen that after watching the hit true crime docuseries last year, he and his development team began talking about characters in the series they could develop projects around. Without knowing any other way to contact Baskin, a Thinkfactory development executive cold-messaged her on Instagram.

“There were about 40 other producers that had also reached out to her, wanting to do some iteration of an unscripted project with her. But ultimately it ended in our favor, because we got on the phone with her,” Reed says.

“I think she was pitched a lot of different things from a lot of different producers, and I think she liked our angle and our pedigree… we were off to the races quickly when she decided we were the ones.”