Dragons’ Den stays on fire
As entertainment television, Dragons’ Den is amateur hour — literally — but therein lies its charm. There’s a moment in Wednesday’s episode when investor and veteran Dragon Arlene Dickinson inadvertently puts her finger on why Dragons’ Den has found a niche in the TV marketplace. Faced with one particularly wild ’n’ wacky business proposition from a would-be entrepreneur, Dickinson says, “Just when I think I’ve seen everything — this.”
Dragons’ Den sticks to a formula, but it’s as unpredictable as life itself — at least, life in the business world. In Wednesday’s hour, for example, the Dragons hear pitches that include a travelling catering martini-bar service, a wacky golf tee that promises to make pros of rank amateurs and, in what might be a reality TV first, a reality TV producer looking for new partners in a TV venture.
The obvious idea is one of the driving forces behind Dragons’ Den, as well as one of the necessary blocks for building a solid, successful business. As Dragons’ Den shows, though, week in and week out, it takes more than an obvious idea to make a sound financial model. It takes luck, determination, hard work, street smarts and a working knowledge of basic math. It also takes patience, humility and a willingness to stand there and take it when the criticism gets out of hand. (CBC — 8 p.m.)
Tonight, on Survivor: Philippines, the opposing tribes mastermind a bargaining deal in the middle of a challenge. (CBS, Global — 9 p.m.)
Wednesday’s episode of CSI revolves around the demise of a music historian, left for dead in a piano. (CTV — 8 p.m., CBS — 11 p.m.)
The superhero drama, Arrow, is being upgraded to the main network. In tonight’s episode, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) takes on DC Comics master assassin Deadshot (Michael Rowe). (WPIX, WGN — 6 p.m., CTV — 9 p.m.)