One of the television productions that managed to find a way to film an entire new season during the pandemic is ABC’s Shark Tank, and we’ll be able to see it for ourselves in about a month. According to a Deadline report from July, Shark Tank moved production from its usual home in Culver City to Las Vegas this summer and took multiple COVID-19 precautions, creating a “quarantine bubble†in which the Sharks and show’s crew were kept “within a single facility with COVID-19 safety protocols, including testing, in place.†(Why not just call it Shark Bubble this season? Seems like a missed opportunity.) It turns out that the facility is the Venetian, and long-running sharks Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Barbara Corcoran will be joined next season by some new and returning guest Sharks, including Toms founder Blake Mycoskie, Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky, jewelry designer Kendra Scott, and some guy named Alex Rodriguez.
ABC released a trailer for the new season today, which reveals several COVID-related changes to the series including incredibly spaced-out chairs for the Sharks and makeup artists dolling them up while wearing face shields. Cuban acknowledges that, especially when it comes to small businesses, “right now people are going through really hard times,†but hopefully a few lucky entrepreneurs walk away with some good news. Will the neurostimulation guy land a deal? Will they ask back the mask lady? The answers await us all on Friday, October 16 at 8 p.m.