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Engagement Party

Why Are Shows Like ‘Hunting Wives' and ‘Yellowstone’ So Popular Now?

Engagement Party

CNN

News, Entertainment News, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6986 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One of the biggest shows of the summer was Netflix’s “Hunting Wives,” a raunchy, soapy thriller about gun-toting Texas housewives. It’s the latest hit in a growing wave of so-called “red state entertainment” finding audiences everywhere. Audie calls up comedian and longtime television producer Larry Wilmore to find out what’s driving Hollywood’s pronounced shift away from the hard lean into wokeness we saw just a few years ago. Is this a lasting change, or just another spin of the wheel in studios’ chase for the next big thing? --  This episode was Produced by Jesse Remedios  Senior Producer: Matt Martinez  Technical Director: Dan Dzula   Executive Producer:  Steve Lickteig  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Audie Cornish, and this is the assignment.

0:05.3

People have been talking about the Yellowstone Empire for years and whether it's, quote,

0:11.0

Red State TV. We're talking about shows often set in the South or West, centering families.

0:17.0

Maybe there's a working class hero, but usually it's a full-on rejection of the liberal ethos that has dominated television for ages.

0:27.5

And if you're not sure what I mean, listen to Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in this Texas political ad.

0:34.8

Restrictions, regulations, nickel and diamond productions, political lectures, Hollywood,

0:41.3

it's a flat circle wood, round and round like a record with the sound off.

0:47.3

So what, you just want to turn the record off?

0:50.5

No, I want to change the tune.

0:54.1

The state is planning to spend $1.5 billion over the next decade on incentives to lore, film, and TV projects there.

1:02.4

The lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, says it's an opportunity to export Texas values.

1:07.7

For the rest of us, it means we'll likely see plenty more shows in the mold of Taylor

1:12.4

Sheridan's Landman, starring Billy Bob Thornton as a West Texas oil executive.

1:17.8

And unfortunately, for your grandkids, we have a 120-year petroleum-based infrastructure.

1:23.9

Our whole lives depend on it.

1:25.8

Or like Netflix's surprise summer hit, the raunchy soap opera The Hunting Wives,

1:30.3

which was recommended to me by a Republican pundit during a commercial break on set.

1:35.3

They don't want a boy, scow. They want a man.

1:38.3

I'm a woman. It's different from me.

1:40.3

Not with the feminism.

1:42.3

It's all part of the rise of this Red State Entertainment.

1:46.4

But according to ratings, it's bipartisan.

...

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