We are fans of this show - and I remember watching the (original?) British version way back when.
The show has been a steady hit in ratings and doing very well, even with younger audiences according to Nielsen.
While the people on the Shark Tank are mostly cutthroat, it does keeps the show somewhat real in the sense of what to expect if you take your idea to anyone with the expertise and money to back you.
I am interested in seeing new ideas and new products. Some of the things people bring are of course absolute crap, but every once in awhile there are some interesting ideas.
A few seasons back, there was a fireman who came up with a clever way to attach a hose to a spigot (instead of having to screw it on) - he started off with the regular hoses firemen use. It was pointed out that it was a great idea, but somewhat limited in that there are only limited sales to limited fire departments. Then he pulled out a smaller version for home use on garden hoses and suddenly the “Sharks” were bidding against each other to grab onto the idea.
Here in Vegas, they had an “open audition” for people who want to be on the show and there was a huge line 24 hours before the auditions started. It was covered by the local news. It got me to thinking how this show was getting people to think of new ideas and innovations. Once again - many of the things they were showing locally were utter crap, but the idea that people were out there thinking and trying to come up with new products and innovations was sort of encouraging.
Just wondered if anyone else is watching?
What do you think - waste of time and effort, or interesting insight into the process of marketing new products?
I love Shark Tank! I’ve seen a bunch of the BBC Dragon’s Den episodes as well.
My only wish is that they’d have more truly innovative stuff and fewer food products on the show. But I get that “I just patented revolutionary kind of paper clip!” does not always make for fascinating television.
But the thing is, it’s not an invention show.I understand that it’s one of the fun aspects of the show but often the investors don’t want the job of developing a business from scratch because someone invented a better mousetrap.
Eta:cbc also has a Dragon’s Den. Two of the Dragons are on Shark Tank as well.
Count me in as a fan of the show. I think it’s great on a lot of levels. I also found it amusing that a while ago Kevin O’Leary said there’s nothing else like it on earth, even though there’s several versions of the show, worldwide, and Kevin himself is on the Canadian version.
They can be cutthroat, but every once in a while their better nature shines through.
It can be interesting, although some of the products (particularly some of the food products) are stupid. And it’s amazing how much money some of these people have invested in their businesses. Some people have invested all of their money in some really shaky ideas.
What made me sad was one lady whose business was failing, her parents took out a mortgage on their house to help her out, and she walked out without a deal. Now, not only was she going down, but she was dragging her parents down with her.
Love this show. Even the stupidest ideas impress me- someone was able to conceive an idea, test it, produce etc. Even if it’s not worth investing in, it’s more than I’ve ever done.
I used to like this a lot. It’s not only the most intelligent reality show I’ve ever seen, it set a very high bar for the participants. You need to be polite, well-dressed, and emotionally stable just to get on at all. It was fun and revealing seen the milder aspects of the cold-blooded American free market at play, an inside look at the people who really run this country. And yes, every so often there was a really good idea. (A belt that doesn’t have holes that rip and where you can set the exact length you need? I’m sold!)
What I don’t like? The pointless bickering. The stupid questions. (“Why are we still talking about this?” Um, because that’s the whole damn point of the show?) The endless interruptions. The ridiculous bum-rushing of the other Sharks. (My favorite exchange: “Are you going to make an offer?” “Stop interrupting me and I will!”) The execrable bum-rushing of the entrepreneurs. (Nb.: “Make a decision right freaking now” is what scam artists do.) And of course, the occasional completely-out-of-left-field bombshell. “If you’re even going to listen to other offers, which anyone with half a brain would do, I am so done with you!”
The more I think about it, the more this looks like an idea that started out great, or at least entertaining, and just got too full of itself for its own good. Come to think of it, you can say that for a lot of reality shows…American Idol, The Amazing Race, Dancing With The Stars, American Ninja Warrior, The Voice, Hell’s Kitchen. I’d be glad to watch Shark Tank again if it got rid of the head games and 24 second clocks and cheap insults and I’m out/I’m back in flipflopping and preaching and just give us good 'ol fashioned crass capitalism.
I forgot which guy it was, but I nearly fell out of my chair when Mark Cuban made a guy one of those offers (you have to decide right now or I’m out!) The guy was like, “I know you’re a conscientious and responsible investor, Mark, so surely you know it would be really irresponsible of me to not listen to any other offers.”
Sometimes making someone decide immediately is fine, if they’ve been dragging their feet or somehow making the negotiations go on longer than they should. Other times it’s just a way to bully someone into a deal. If I was an entrepreneur and came on the show and was given a yes or no right now type offer I think I’d have to turn it down on principle.
I recommend people wanting to go into business for themselves to watch Shark Tank because, at its core, it’s a crash course in business economics (ditto for Dragon’s Den, btw).
I don’t mind the bickering or the feeding frenzies. It’s a reality show, after all. The producers aren’t going to pick someone who’s as exciting as drying paint :shrug: