For the majority of its first 16 seasons, the “Shark Tank” natural habitat was at Friday night on the ABC schedule. However, Season 17 is set to premiere Wednesday night alongside “The Golden Bachelor” — but the business-savvy team welcomes the changing tides.
“We used to be on a different night and ABC moved us to Friday. At that time, nobody watched TV on Fridays and I distinctly remember having a conversation with ABC executives asking, ‘You say you love the show, why are you moving it there? It’ll die there!’ ” executive producer Clay Newbill told TheWrap at ABC’s Summer Soirée earlier this month. “I was wrong, they were right. So, honestly, I trust them — a lot of effort and work and thought goes into it before they make a move like that. Plus, the interesting thing is our lead-in will be ‘The Golden Bachelor,’ which if you look at the demos, both reality.”
“We like to keep the show pretty uniform with the formula, but how we really mix it up is with the Guest Sharks,” fellow EP Yun Lingner added. “That’s a really important component of the show, because everybody has a different perspective about business and the entrepreneurs that come in every season are really a natural reflection of what’s going on in business. Like at the beginning of the show, people didn’t sell on social media, right? But now that’s everything. So it’s just a natural kind of manifestation of what’s really going on.”
Some of this season’s Guest Sharks include Michael Strahan, Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines. However, another familiar face will also be seen on the show: Pete Davidson — only as an entrepreneur, not a Shark.
“[Davidson] was super organic. He happens to be an investor in a company that applied. We didn’t look for him,” Lingner shared. “For me, what was so fun about Pete’s appearance, he’s not doing a bit. It was fun watching him watch the Sharks, you could tell he was so tickled by them. The viewer is going to enjoy vicariously through them.”
“As a joke, Robert Herjavec said, ‘So tell us about yourself. What’s your story? What’s your background?’ Pete answered, ‘I do comedy and I do acting, but you know, it’s not really sustainable. You just don’t know in the entertainment industry,’” Newbill elaborated. “And he said, ‘So being an investor is one of the things that I’m interested in doing, and that’s why I invested in this sock company.’”
For newest main cast member and Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky, getting to help both his co-stars and the contestants is a chance for him to pay it forward.
“I started Season 11 and I became a regular Shark two seasons ago. It’s a family where they treat everybody great no matter who they are,” he shared. “But as a Shark, I get to be with Guest Sharks. When I started, they showed me the ropes, and this season I got to help other Guest Sharks.”
“It’s 100% real, in the sense that it’s your money, you don’t know anything beforehand and you need to decide if you’re going to invest or not. The original motivation for why I wanted to be on ‘Shark Tank’ was I had so many failures before Kind became what it became,” Lubetzky added. “Ten years ago, I was barely, barely surviving, barely making ends meet, barely able to pay payroll. Then Kind made it big, and I was so excited to share my lessons and mistakes with people, how to prevent them. The cool thing about the ‘Shark Tank’ format, it’s very real and it brings out the competitive juices from the Sharks. It creates a real negotiating environment, every pitch goes 30-45 minutes and they do condense it, but it’s very true to form. It’s a very interesting phenomenon. It’s intellectually stimulating and challenging.”
“When we set out to create the show, we wanted to have something authentic. It’s a real business meeting. People don’t realize the length of time they actually talk is, on average, 45 minutes, sometimes as long as an hour. Then we edit that down to 7 to 12 minutes,” Newbill agreed. “So these are real business meetings, the Sharks know nothing about them beforehand. It forces them to ask the questions as they explore, and that’s how we as the viewer learn. That’s one of the really important things about ‘Shark Tank’ – it’s fun to watch and it’s entertaining, but you learn something; it’s got this incredible takeaway.”
“Shark Tank” Season 17 premieres Wednesday night at 10 p.m. ET on ABC before streaming on Hulu.
