2009 Summer TV Preview: Shark Tank

With the economy in the state it’s in, I can’t imagine it’s easy to get a business up and running but it looks like ABC has found a way to take that grueling task and turn it into a reality TV show. Produced by Survivor and Apprentice mastermind Mark Burnett, Shark Tank is giving aspiring entrepreneurs a shot at getting their business idea up and running.

In this new reality series, people will have a chance to present their ideas to a group of multi-millionaire business moguls in the hopes of getting them to part with some of their money and invest in their business.

In the premiere episode, several ambitious entrepreneurs must convince these merciless moguls to invest their own hard earned cash in their breakthrough business concepts. Although not all of the entrepreneurs will be fortunate enough to convince the panel of their proposal, by the end of the hour the Sharks will have given away more than half a million dollars of their own money. The entrepreneurs include a chef who believes his family's pie recipe has all the ingredients to become a profitable culinary treat, an inventor with a technological gadget he hopes will take the world by storm, and a nanny who is confident that she has come up with a fun, easy way for children to take their medicine.

The five Sharks are real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, "infomercial" industry pioneer Kevin Harrington, technology innovator Robert Herjavec, fashion icon Daymond John and financial expert Kevin O'Leary.

This sounds a little like The Apprentice meets that American Inventor, with people presenting business ideas in the hopes of getting them off the ground as opposed to silly inventions. I think the success of this show will hinge on the sharks and whether or not they’re animated and entertaining enough for what America expects from their reality TV judges table.

Shark Tank premieres Sunday, August 9 at 9:00 p.m., ET on ABC.