As of 2018, approximately 35,000 to 40,000 entrepreneurs apply each season with about 1,000 advancing to the next step, 150 getting to pitch the sharks, and fewer than 100 making it on the air most episodes contain four pitches per broadcast hour. A pitch of around 45 minutes by a contestant is edited to about 11 minutes.

The show is said to portray 'the drama of pitch meetings and the interaction between the entrepreneurs and tycoons'. However, if all of the panel members opt out, the entrepreneur leaves empty-handed. The entrepreneur can make a handshake deal ( gentleman's agreement) on the show if a panel member is interested. The same disclaimer also states that no offer of investment is being made to the viewer. The sharks are paid as cast stars of the show, but a disclaimer at the start of each episode states the money they invest is their own. Some of the investors are usually kindhearted and try to soften the impact of rejection, like panel member Barbara Corcoran, while others such as Kevin O'Leary can be 'brutal' and show 'no patience even for tales of hardship'. The sharks often find weaknesses and faults in an entrepreneur's product, business model or valuation of their company. The show features a panel of investors called 'sharks,' who decide whether to invest as entrepreneurs make business presentations on their company or product. In 2012–13, it won Outstanding Reality Program. The series has been a ratings success in its time slot, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Structured Reality Program four times (2014–2017) in the first four years of that category's existence. It shows entrepreneurs making business presentations to a panel of five venture capitalists ( investors in start-ups) called 'sharks' on the program, who decide whether to invest in their companies. The show is the American franchise of the international format Dragons' Den, which originated in Japan as Money Tigers in 2001.

Shark Tank is an American business reality television series that premiered on August 9, 2009, on ABC.

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