The TV critic is on vacation. Plus, Shark Tank is about business and stuff. So I watched the first episode of Mark Burnett’s latest reality offering Sunday night. As did Curious Capitalist Jr., who was supposed to go to bed but kept watching because he was riveted. Hmmm, a 10-year-old (who thinks economics and business are boring) riveted by the spectacle of entrepreneurs making elevator pitches to potential investors. I think this show may be going places.
Actually, it already has gone places: The concept debuted in Japan in 2001, and if Wikipedia is to be believed (yes! believe!) there are versions in 14 other countries. Clearly, it’s a workable concept. The one element that seemed a bit too fake to take was how little the five panelists/investors were told about the financials of the businesses being pitched to them. You just don’t put up hundreds of thousands of dollars knowing as little as they did. But I’ll just assume that got taken care of off camera.
The on-camera negotiations are fascinating, and educational. The big takeaway is that people don’t like investing in untried companies unless they get a controlling stake. So now Barbara Corcoran, who got rich off New York real estate, is going to be calling the shots at a Georgia maker of elephant-shaped kids-medicine dispensers and (together with co-investor Daymond John) a New Jersey pie company. Sure hope that works out for her.
Corcoran appears to be the show’s designated good guy (or sucker). The other two main characters are tech entrepreneurs and veterans of the Canadian version of the show: Kevin O’Leary, the designated jerk, and Robert Herjavec, the smooth talker who keeps the show moving along. FUBU founder John and infomercial king Kevin Harrington don’t say much, at least not yet.
Anyway, I don’t think the show will singlehandedly drive the economic recovery. But it’s dramatically less cringeworthy than what little of the The Apprentice I saw. Well, except for when the guy pitched a Bluetooth surgical implant for those who can’t bear to be separated from their cell phones. I suspect he was a plant.
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