LOS ANGELES – "The Hunting Wives" received the ultimate pop culture accolade in October 2025 when "Saturday Night Live" spoofed the steamy Netflix drama, cementing its status as a TV phenom.
The send-up featured host Amy Poehler as Malin Åkerman's seductive Texas socialite Margo Banks, with Chloe Fineman playing Brittany Snow's Sophie O'Neil. Sarah Sherman and Ashley Padilla joined, along with surprise guest Aubrey Plaza, as the parody made a direct hit on the show's sex, guns, plot twists and questionable wigs.
Ironically, Snow, the former political operative drawn into Margo's scandalous world, got an inside tip that the major spoof was coming.
"It was me," Snow tells USA TODAY on the red carpet at the Season 2 premiere of "The Hunting Wives"
on Thursday, Nov. 12. "I got a hot tip from a friend. I won't say who."
The secret friend directed Snow to watch "SNL."
"The friend said, 'You better go home right now and turn on your TV. I couldn't tell you before,'" Snow says. She jumped right onto her "Hunting Wives" text chain to alert the others of the Texas-sized exposure. "I texted all the girls and said, 'I think we're going to be on "SNL" tonight.'"
When the text arrived, Åkerman and Jaime Ray Newman, who plays Margo's fiercely loyal friend (and lover) Callie Baskin, were at an event with costar Katie Lowes, who plays Jill Thompson.
"We had to kind of squirrel away into a corner and watch the 'SNL' sketch," says Akerman.
The genius satire, one of the "SNL" season's high water marks, was enthusiastically received by the cast.
"It was the most surreal thing I have ever watched in my life," Newman says "It was a pinch-me moment."
Åkerman is even more effusive. "It feels like we made it when that happened," she says, noting that she especially loved Poehler's wild-wigged, hilarious Margo impression.
"Amy Poehler was bang on," she says. "I think she should come to the show and be part of 'Hunting Wives.'"
Speaking at the Season 2 premiere of "The Hunting Wives" at the famed Egyptian Theatre ahead of its Nov. 26 Netflix debut, the cast had plenty of reasons to celebrate. WNBA star and show fan Angel Reese, who makes an appearance in Episode 1, mingled with cast members including Snow and Åkerman.
They have new goals for Season 2.
"We want more memes, more TikToks and more fans to be shocked," says Snow.
"We want more reaction videos," Akerman adds. "Film yourself watching it. We want to know in realtime how it goes."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Hunting Wives' cast reveal 'SNL' star shared spoof that changed everything
