

Ask HN: What's your favorite business TV show? - shahedkhan30

I love watching TV shows, but more importantly I love watching business-related TV shows, such as Shark Tank, Hardcore Pawn, and Undercover Boss.<p>I'm just looking at if their are any other American TV shows that I haven't quite heard about yet.<p>Please post your shows in the comments below!
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adamzochowski
Shark Tank is American remake of Dragon's Den.

I highly recommend BBC version ( <http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/> ) as it
deals quite a bit with valuation and is more serious. After success of BBC
Dragons Den there have been few BBC offshots: Dragons Den Online (shorter
pitches); Dragons Den - What happened later (recap of pitches and where
entrepreneurs are year later); Dragons Den Around the world (recap of how
other tv stations do Dragons Den). Less than half of the pitches get any
traction.

After watching the UK I found Canadian edition (available to watch at cbc.ca)
a bit over the top. The valuation and money exchanged were much higher. The
cool think in Canadian edition is Bret, who is either a VC or philanthropist
depending on his mood. CBC also produced couple episodes showing how dragons
grew to the riches that they have now. What were their roots, and where did
they start. Less than half of the pitches get any traction.

Shark Tank in comparison is crazy as it tries to show: American Dream can be
made with a little help of Seed money. Most pitches are good, no fumbles, no
crazy valuations, no crazy people. As if 75% to 100% of pitches were made to
deals.

I can't say much on Irish or Australian Dragon's Den, those are quite tricky
to find. I saw parts of Australian Dragon's Den on a special BBC edition of
Dragon's Den around the world.

Being of Slavic origins I tried watching the Czech edition (called 'd den'
<http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/program/dend> click videoarchive) but found
business terms tricker to grasp. The new season comes with subtitles so I will
renew an attempt to watch it.

Poland started doing own dragons den this spring. There are clips of it on
youtube as part of original marketing. From what I read, the show was a hit,
and they want another season within next 6 months.

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matdwyer
Get a hold of Dragson Den... the Canadian versions (CBC) is the best in my
opinion (I'm biased) but the UK (BBC) version is solid as well.

It blows shark tank out of the water, much more business stuff then sappy
stories.

It also features Kevin & Robert from shark tank (who were/are originally
dragons before sharks)

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shahedkhan30
Yeah I like Dragons Den, but it doesn't air in the states, I wish it did, but
unfortunately it does not.

We only have Shark tank here.

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pbreit
It's gotten a bit formulaic and the long term results have been mediocre but
"Kitchen Nightmares" is a good watch and has some lessons applicable outside
the restaurant industry.

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staunch
Hardcore Pawn is the ripoff of Pawn Stars, which is quite good.

You would definitely like Pitchmen.

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bobds
How about Dirty Jobs? It covers so many niches.

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shahedkhan30
Hmm... What channel is it on? Sounds interesting, what is it about?

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minalecs
there was a show called startup junkies, its available on hulu. It was just a
single season, but pretty good overall.

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shahedkhan30
Thanks! Will look that up, sounds interesting. Any more?

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shahedkhan30
Any other great shows?

