Shark Tank is the title of the American adaptation of the BBC business series Dragons' Den.
Shark Tank uses the same broad international format: entrepreneurs present businesses or products to wealthy investors and seek money in exchange for a stake in the company. The American version changed the panel’s animal metaphor from Dragons to Sharks.
The programme premiered in the United States in 2009 and became a major example of the format’s international reach. Individual investors, episode structure and deal outcomes differ from the British programme, but the central pitch-and-negotiation idea remains recognisable.
Shark Tank should not be confused with Money Tigers, the Japanese format from which the wider franchise originated. Dragons' Den is the British title, Shark Tank is the American title, and Money Tigers is the earlier Japanese source format. These three names describe related stages of the same television-format history.