“Shark Tank” Returns with More Guest Sharks Than Ever Before and a Special Guest Entrepreneur
Shark Tank is back for its 17th season on ABC, and it's one that is seeing a significant shakeup to its formula. Longtime Shark Mark Cuban left the series at the end of the last season, and while he’s technically been replaced with longtime guest Shark Daniel Lubetsky, this season will feature the largest number of guest Sharks to date. Alexis Ohanian, Allison Ellsworth, Fawn Weaver, Michael Strahan, and Chip and Joana Gaines will appear later in the season.
In the first episode, however, we have two guest Sharks – with only the familiar faces of Lori Greiner, Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec. Our guest Sharks this week are Kendra Scott, the founder of a billion-dollar fashion lifestyle brand started in 2002, and Rashaun Williams, founder and chief investment officer of Harbinger Sports Partners. Both of these guest Sharks have previously appeared on the show.
Our first entrepreneur in the Tank brought a familiar face along with him, comedian Pete Davidson, who is an investor in doublesoul – a sock company that claims to have very soft, comfortable, and sustainable socks. It was a fun breath of fresh air to have someone like Pete tagging along, who recently got involved with doublesoul and seems to really love being a part of it. It’s even better to see him call out the attitude of some of the Sharks – especially the ever-so-polite Mr. Wonderful.
Thirty years after first launching the first-ever spring coil shoe, Z-Coil, father and daughter pair Linley and Andres are attempting to finally launch their shoes into the stratosphere with the help of the Sharks. It’s an interesting design, with a coil on the heel essentially turning your shoe into a pogo stick. But what it lacks in aesthetics, it seems to more than make up for in comfort. Guest Shark Rashaun made a lot of underhanded comments during this pitch, appearing to come off even ruder than Mr. Wonderful!
Next up, is an exciting new way to experience freedom on the water – the HydroBlade. It’s an interesting mixture of a treadmill-like machine mixed with a jet ski, that smoothly glides across the water, not providing any wake. While definitely an interesting concept, it's one that is priced way too high. Not to mention, one of the two entrepreneurs makes a cardinal Shark Tank mistake – being argumentative and pretty darn rude to Kevin. Not only does that not work well for a potential deal with Kevin, but it also shows the other Sharks a pretty nasty side to yourself off the get-go. Shark Tank 101: Don’t argue with the Sharks.
Finally, two dads enter the Tank with a unique proposal in the extremely crowded beer space. Dad Strength is an in-between beer, between the 0.0 abv of your non-alcoholic beers and the high alcohol content of regular beer. Craig and Ryan come in with a pretty good proposal and end up procuring quite the excellent deal from the Sharks.
Shark Tank takes on a bit of a new form with the addition of new Sharks, but is still the same, reliable, good-feeling show it always has been. The pitches are fresh and unique as ever, and it’s always great to see when truly deserving entrepreneurs can achieve the deal of a lifetime. Check out the return of Shark Tank for yourself tonight on ABC, and streaming on Hulu.