Thanks to Bob Murphy http://bit.ly/rzhuI for this excellent review of “Shark Tank on ABC”.  I must admit that my personal view of the show has been a great comparison to that of the BBC America version of Dragons Den…and I loved it.  If you are interested in investment, then this is your show!

Swimming with the fishes can sometimes be fun and relaxing. But this summer ABC has taken that peaceful concept and is now throwing people into the Shark Tank.

The Premise

Every Sunday, inventors and business owners and some wanna-bes enter the room known as the Shark Tank attempting to hock their wares to the high profile investors known as The Sharks. The Sharks (Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O’Leary, Daymond, John, Kevin Harrington, and Robert Herjavek) attack each pitch person, grilling them, sometimes excessively, with questions designed to elicit the information that would make them want to invest or, in some cases, outright buy the product or company.

Criticism

The show has come under some criticism because often the Sharks will make fun of or criticize an idea or the person who refused an offer or who had a bizarre and entirely impractical idea. In the second episode of the show, for example, O’Leary and the other Sharks broke out laughing in response to a pitch in Episode 102 by Mary Ellen Simonsen for $500000 to develop her laptop sticky note fold-down holder. Cracking jokes nearly the entire time, the Sharks made fun of how she has “created a sticky pad for sticky pads.”

Business Tips Gleaned from Watching

This show is a must watch for those interested in taking their business to the next level, acquiring investors for their products or inventing and selling their own products. The show has not only entertainment value, but business value as well. The criticisms are unfounded when one takes into consideration that the Sharks often do share secrets or little known facts about getting into business. For example, on the second show of the season, O’Leary asked one business person, the co-creator of an apparel line, if he’d attempted to sell his wares at trade shows and if he has any standing orders. This information can be crucial for those who have ideas or products they wish to sell and may not know how best to go about it.

It seems that TV watching is like politics, everyone has their own point of view and everyone likes something different. Well if you’re the type of person that likes reality TV then you probably watch shows just like Big Brother and Survivor and if this is the case you are probably a huge addict just like me! As of late, I have been really anxious for Survivor to come back but I really haven’t seen any commercials for when its going to come back or anything about the show so I decided to have a look and see what I could find!

Courtesy of Fox Reality Channel

What I came up with were some really interesting websites that gave some really nice information on not only when these shows will be coming back but also some nice previews as well. If you are the type of person that likes to be in the “loop” then these sites are definitely for you. Even if you haven’t ever watched a show like Survivor you could get a pretty good idea of what this show entails just from reading the descriptions on these websites and watching a few videos. Here is a excerpt from one website about Survivor:

“Survivor is a popular reality TV game show format broadcasted in many countries throughout the world. In the show, contestants are isolated in the wilderness and vie for cold hard cash and other prizes such as trips and cars. The show exercises a progressive elimination scheme, allowing the contestants to vote off a tribe member, until only one final contestant remains and wins the title of “Sole Survivor”. The format for Survivor was created in 1992 by Charlie Parsons, and the first production of it was the Swedish show Expedition: Robinson in 1997.”

The videos on these websites are of high quality so its not like your going to be watching some third level hack video. Plus, like on a lot of other unnamed websites (ABC/NBC/CBS) you don’t have to sit through grueling advertisements which can often become quite annoying! Personally, I really like websites like this because as aforementioned it does help keep me in the loop but it also gets me interested in shows I may not have heard of before! I am all about watching my regular shows but if I see something that interests me, I’m willing to give it a whirl! Some other reality TV shows that you should check out are: American Idol, Real World, The Apprentice, and the ever popular Amazing Race!

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