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'Shark Tank' Season 14: Fans call show's first ever live premiere a 'train wreck', say 'don't ever do this again'

Angry fans slam ABC for show's experiment with live audience, demands to get old format back

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ABC's 'Shark Tank' premiered Season 14 on Friday night, concluding with an offer unlike any other. However, the network's experiment with an in-house audience and an unedited episode did not go down well with the viewers.

For the first time, Kevin O'Leary, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner, Barbara Corcoran, and Mark Cuban were joined by a studio audience to hear uncensored, unfiltered pitches from aspiring entrepreneurs. For one night only, home viewers were asked to vote on whether our Sharks should take the risk and invest. Despite the fact that all three pitches of the night were a success, with all entrepreneurs walking away with a deal, the format was a total mess for viewers who enjoyed the show for its boardroom drama. Fans were quick to voice their opinions, with nearly all of them opposing the show's attempt at another live broadcast.

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'Shark Tank', the reality competition series in which entrepreneurs compete for funding from six clever business experts, resumed for Season 14 on September 23. Producers introduced a live aspect to tonight's episode in the hopes that it will be a fantastic opportunity for entrepreneurs to get their product out to a large audience and gain some financial backing that they would not have gotten otherwise. The show maintained the same structure and restrictions as in previous years. However, instead of four business pitches, there were only three, probably owing to time constraints and the zero edit, which would have allowed room for one more.

Fans who have been diligently watching the show for years didn't seem to have enjoyed the new format, as it made it harder for them to follow the words coming out of the Sharks' mouth with every one of them talking over another. This usually gets edited out in its regular format but owing to its live streaming, it wasn't the case. While calling the episode a 'train wreck' a fan wrote, "#SharkTankLive - what a train wreck. I love the show, but this was impossible to watch & enjoy with all the yelling & talking over one another. Please don’t ever do this again." Another fan tweeted how the decision from ABC to go live was one of the worst to go down in TV history, "Sorry to say #SharkTankLive is the worst decision in TV History. Please go back to the old format @ABCNetwork!" Comparing it to another reality show which tried its hand at going live with its premiere 'Dancing With The Stars', a fan wrote, "#SharkTankLive. Have watched Shark Tank from day 1. If the show continues to be LIVE like it was today on Friday, 9-23-2022 I no longer will sit thru this circus that was presented live. Very annoying, Very unprofessional. Look what happened to DWTS." Pointing how the studio audience further added to the chaos, a viewer wrote, "Please NEVER EVER air another episode of #SharkTankLive! It was absolutely unwatchable! The audience was too loud, the show was chaotic, the sharks were talking over each other and the narrator looked like he was struggling to look at the camera and the teleprompter. HORRIBLE!"

One viewer talked about how this new format took all the focus away from the business dealing and turned the show into a spectacle, "Did not like #SharkTankLive format. The audience distracts from the negotiations and its loud . The text voting is not for me. Enjoy all #SharkTankS14 fans. “I’m out.” Fans felt how the Sharks had to act differently owing to live taping, as they wrote, "REALLY HATE #SharkTankLive , and it’s SUCH a shame, because I LOVE Shark Tank! They’re trading interesting business strategy for SPECTACLE. The sharks are acting very differently from how they normally do. I’M OUT."

'Shark Tank' Season 14 airs every Friday at 8/7c on ABC. Missed an episode? Been wanting to catch up? Episodes can also be viewed the next day on demand and on Hulu. Not just that, you can also watch old seasons and episodes on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.

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