emma's Blog: Burnett takes Dragon's Den to the U.S.
February 16, 2008 at 18:05"Dragons" and "Sharks" tell it like it is.
I just read that Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor and The Apprentice (and most of the staggeringly successful reality/game shows that dominate our screens), is working with Sony Pictures Television to create a U.S. version of “Dragon’s Den,” a Japanese reality show that already has a Canadian counterpart running on CBC.
I really like the Canadian version. It’s a simple idea. People who think they’ve got a great business idea pitch the concept to established entrepreneurs who they hope will invest money in their businesses.
Of course Burnett’s American version will be meaner than the Canadian offering. He’s renaming the show The Shark Tank and says "It's about seeing people squirm, either in their unpreparedness or their lies." Hopefully it will also be about seeing the occasional entrepreneur succeed which (and maybe this is the Canadian in me) is the part of the Dragon’s Den that I most enjoy.
Here in Vancouver, organizations like NewMediaBC and the Vancouver Enterprise Forum work hard to host real-life events with the same goal – giving entrepreneurs a chance to strut their stuff. From what I’ve seen the real thing can be pretty entertaining, even without the television cameras. The city is full of entrepreneurs with bad ideas they think are good ideas, and unchecked they spend years believing they’ve got “ the next big thing.”
Maybe that’s why I like The Dragon’s Den. We’ve all been trapped at a conference lunch table listening to an entrepreneur who really believes his online travel guide is going to make him rich. We sit there listening politely, but really we want to do what the Dragons do, and tell him to get a real job.
