Money Tigers supplied the original format for the UK television show Dragon's Den.
Money Tigers was a Japanese programme broadcast on Nippon Television. It established the core structure later used by Dragon's Den: entrepreneurs appear before a panel of wealthy investors, explain a business proposal and negotiate over funding and equity.
The UK adaptation premiered in 2005 and retained the central pitch-room concept while using British entrepreneurs, investors and business customs. The word “dragons” became the British label for the panel, rather than the “tigers” used in the Japanese title.
A common mistake is to identify Shark Tank as the source. Shark Tank is another adaptation in the same international television lineage, but it was not the original Japanese programme that inspired the British version.