For 16 seasons on ABC — and a seventeenth set to hit the 2025 TV schedule later this 12 months — Shark Tank has been serving to entrepreneurs get their companies off the bottom. Barbara Corcoran has been an instrumental a part of that, nevertheless it seems that wasn’t at all times the plan. The businesswoman revealed that another person was initially the frontrunner for her spot on the present, and she or he lobbied exhausting to get the job — even name-dropping Donald Trump.
Barbara Corcoran stated she knew instantly that the Shark Tank function was an ideal match for her, so when she heard that producer Mark Burnett had “requested one other lady to bounce,” she fired off an e mail that laid out precisely why she shouldn’t be neglected. She shared that letter on Fb, explaining to followers:
The producer had already chosen another person, however I wasn’t prepared to surrender. So I wrote him an inventory of explanation why I deserved a shot. That e mail acquired me the seat and adjusted the course of my life. Seventeen years later, I’m so glad I pressed ship. Only a reminder, generally the door gained’t open till you knock louder.
So simply how loudly did she knock? Barbara Corcoran wrote that she thought-about Shark Tank’s rejection a “fortunate attraction,” as all of her largest successes had come on the heels of rejection. She proceeded to record a couple of examples, together with a instructor who referred to as her “silly” due to her dyslexia and the New York actual property moguls who locked her out as a result of she was a girl. Then she dropped one fairly huge identify:
Then there was The Donald himself who wrongly swore in court docket I’d by no means see a penny of the $4m fee he owed me for saving his ass and making the most important land deal within the metropolis’s historical past.
Effectively there you go. When you’re going to name-drop any individual for a job, it doesn’t get a lot greater than “The Donald,” aka the star of one other Mark Burnett-produced actuality present The Apprentice (who, after all, went on to turn into President of america), and I’m certain it didn’t harm that the courtroom incident in query got here amidst her reportedly “saving his ass.”
Barbara Corcoran clearly acquired the job and has since appeared in each season of Shark Tank thus far. She’s invested in effectively over 100 services and products, together with an enormous take care of Coverplay in Season 1 and different companies like The Comfortable and Daisy Muffins within the years that adopted. Who is aware of what would have occurred to these entrepreneurs if she hadn’t fought for her spot on the present forward of its 2009 premiere?
She — like fellow shark Daymond John — has stayed dedicated to the present even by difficult financial occasions, and it’s no shock she’s acquired robust opinions about who the perfect visitor shark ever was.
Shark Tank Season 17 premieres at 10 p.m. ET Wednesday, September 24, on ABC and will likely be accessible on streaming the subsequent day with a Hulu subscription.