Mark Cuban said he might be done with reality television altogether as he prepares to exit ABC’s hit business and entrepreneurship series “Shark Tank” after its upcoming 16th season.
“I’m getting asked that a lot now that people know that I’m leaving — I doubt it,” Cuban told TheWrap in response to whether or not he’d lead another business-centered show or return to reality TV in general. Similar to his decision to leave “Shark Tank,” the billionaire investor said he’s more focused on “spending time with my family” moving forward.
“I’m leaving just to spend more time with my kids — they’re teenagers now. When they were younger, my wife and I got to tell them where to be and when; now they ain’t listening to us,” Cuban said. “We shoot in June and September, and just getting the opportunity now when they’re getting out of school to be able to spend time directly with them, that’s important. I’m tired of missing that.”
While fans will be missing Cuban, this won’t be the last they see the Dallas Mavericks co-owner. He’s still got some updates he has to do for the companies he’s recently invested in from previous seasons. Per Nasdaq, Cuban has financially-backed 85 companies since being involved with the show.
“I still have to do updates with the companies that I’ve invested in,” Cuban explained. “So I’ll come back and visit, do my updates and I’ll turn it over to somebody.”
Cuban made his debut on “Shark Tank” as a guest in Season 2 before officially diving in as regular investor in Season 3. FUBU founder and “Shark Tank” costar Daymond John said if it wasn’t for Cuban, the whole show may have gone out of business years before.
“Very few people know that Mark really saved the show. The show was going to be canceled in its first three years because nobody could explain the show. ‘Where’s the money, when do they get the money, do you lose, you win,’ whatever the case was. So it was really hard for us to go onto national television,” John explained. “All the other famous people at the time said, ‘I’m not getting on the stage with five other people that nobody knows.’”
He continued: “Mark Cuban found out that it was one of the top shows to watch for kids and families and he said, ‘I’ll come on if it’s about entrepreneurship.’ He walked the show onto “[Jimmy] Kimmel [Live!]’ and onto ‘[The] Ellen [DeGeneres Show],’ and the show then started to skyrocket.’ Mark said, ‘I’m going to stay one or two years to help you all out.’ Mark stayed 15 years after that. So it’s just an honor that he was such a big advocate of the show, and we’re lucky to have him.”
Looking back over the now 16 seasons, Cuban said entrepreneurship being at the core of what “Shark Tank” is all about is what made invest his time in the first place.
“Just the message it sent to all the viewers of the United States of America, that the American dream is alive and well,” Cuban said. “You can watch somebody that came on to that carpet that’s from Idaho, from New York, from L.A., doesn’t matter where. Started with nothing, came from nothing, dropped out of high school and was standing there trying to become a millionaire, and doing it. If they can do it, anybody watching can do it. And being able to send that message was always the most special part of ‘Shark Tank’ to me.”
“Shark Tank” Season 16 premieres Friday, Oct. 18, on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.
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