This Week In TV: A Shark’s Engagement

Yes, the Oscars were on this past Sunday. Yes, the lack of diversity in the nominees was a huge issue raised by everyone and their mother and was talked about (and rightfully so) continuously throughout the ceremony. And yes, Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar for Best Actor for The Revenant after an entire career’s worth of crushing losses.

And that’s all I’m going say about the Oscars. You’re now asking yourself: one of television’s biggest events just occurred and I don’t want to talk about it?

Well, if this was a blog titled “This Week in Movies,” I would probably write 5,000 words on the Academy Awards, especially focusing in on the overarching theme of a lack of thespian diversity, and deeper thoughts on all the significance of each awards and their nominees. But, since the show is something that people watch on TV but really doesn’t have too much to do with the world of television, I’m moving on to more TV-relative things.

For example, this week, we saw a literal (and future) marriage of two huge reality TV superstars. Robert Herjavec, 53, a multi millionaire Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank, and Kym Johnson, 39, a professional dancer on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, got engaged. The two reality stars are practically a match made in pseudo-scripted and over dramatized TV heaven.

Herjavec, born in Croatia, moved to Canada with his family at the age of eight. His entire family spoke no English, and they arrived with one suitcase and just $20. He became the embodiment of the American (well really Canadian) Dream after working his tail off to build a security software empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now, he stars on ABC’s Shark Tank, a show where entrepreneurs come and pitch their ideas to him and 4 other “Sharks” – multimillionaires or billionaires like Mark Cuban, who also achieved success purely through an entrepreneurial drive. If the Sharks “bite”, or like the idea, they can accept or make an offer to buy an equity stake in the company being pitched.

Kym, has been dancing since the age of three. She got her big break on her native Australia’s version of Dancing With The Stars, but after several breakout performances, she headed to ABC’s Dancing With the Stars for 14 seasons, winning twice. DWTS and Shark Tank, I think, despite being drastically different, are actually very similar shows.

Currently in the 7th season of Shark Tank, ABC shows re-runs on its business-oriented sister network CNBC. Full disclosure, I LIVE for these re runs. Monday-Thursday from 8-10 PM, you will find me coming home and immediately flipping CNBC on to watch Shark Tank.

I love seeing what people are able to come up with and then seeing their life’s work come to fruition upon them receiving a deal with a Shark. I also enjoy seeing extremely unlikable people walk away without a deal. It’s great inspiration that the American Dream is alive and well and it’s fun to sit and watch, but it’s more like a game show. The hosts stay the same and there’s no real plot, but we watch to see who wins.

I’m extremely happy for Robert and Kym, especially since Robert admitted to feeling suicidal after his divorce from his wife, with whom he has 3 kids, and he is apparently an extremely kind and genuine guy.

But, their engagement shows us how 2 drastically different shows can be the same at the end. Shark Tank is the business version of DWTS and vice versa, professional hosts are paired with amateur guests who may win or lose, but if they try their best, they can prevail and show the American Dream is still attainable.