For 16 seasons on ABC — and a 17th set to hit the 2025 TV schedule later this year — Shark Tank has been helping entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground. Barbara Corcoran has been an instrumental part of that, but it turns out that wasn’t always the plan. The businesswoman revealed that someone else was originally the frontrunner for her spot on the show, and she lobbied hard to get the job — even name-dropping Donald Trump.
Barbara Corcoran said she knew immediately that the Shark Tank role was a perfect fit for her, so when she heard that producer Mark Burnett had “asked another girl to dance,” she fired off an email that laid out exactly why she should not be overlooked. She shared that letter on Facebook, explaining to fans:
The producer had already chosen someone else, but I wasn’t ready to give up. So I wrote him a list of reasons why I deserved a shot. That email got me the seat and changed the course of my life. Seventeen years later, I’m so glad I pressed send. Just a reminder, sometimes the door won’t open until you knock louder.
So just how loudly did she knock? Barbara Corcoran wrote that she considered Shark Tank’s rejection a “lucky charm,” as all of her biggest successes had come on the heels of rejection. She proceeded to list a few examples, including a teacher who called her “stupid” because of her dyslexia and the New York real estate moguls who locked her out because she was a woman. Then she dropped one pretty big name:
Then there was The Donald himself who wrongly swore in court I’d never see a penny of the $4m commission he owed me for saving his ass and making the largest land deal in the city’s history.
Well there you go. If you’re going to name-drop somebody for a job, it doesn’t get much bigger than “The Donald,” aka the star of another Mark Burnett-produced reality show The Apprentice (who, of course, went on to become President of the United States), and I’m sure it didn’t hurt that the courtroom incident in question came amidst her reportedly “saving his ass.”
Barbara Corcoran obviously got the job and has since appeared in every season of Shark Tank to date. She’s invested in well over a hundred products and services, including a big deal with Coverplay in Season 1 and other businesses like The Comfy and Daisy Cakes in the years that followed. Who knows what would have happened to those entrepreneurs if she hadn’t fought for her spot on the show ahead of its 2009 premiere?
She — like fellow shark Daymond John — has stayed committed to the show even through challenging economic times, and it’s no surprise she’s got strong opinions about who the best guest shark ever was.
Shark Tank Season 17 premieres at 10 p.m. ET Wednesday, September 24, on ABC and will be available on streaming the next day with a Hulu subscription.
