Shark Tank is the American adaptation of the investment format used by the British version of Dragon's Den.
The American programme premiered on ABC in 2009 and features entrepreneurs pitching businesses to a panel of investors known as sharks. Like Dragon's Den, it centres on requests for capital in exchange for an ownership stake, followed by questioning and negotiation.
The two programmes use different titles and have different investors, presenters and production histories. The shared structure comes from the wider format lineage that began with the Japanese programme Money Tigers. As a result, Shark Tank is not a direct British spin-off in which the Dragon's Den panel simply moved to the United States.
The animal metaphor changes from dragons to sharks, but the underlying television idea remains the same: entrepreneurs face experienced financiers in a high-pressure studio pitch.