By Mark Gray
6:05pm PDT, Sep 27, 2023
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Kevin O'Leary has long been cast as the villain on "Shark Tank," and that's exactly how he likes it. Funnily enough, the entrepreneur and investor, who's worth $400M, had no other choice: Kevin was told from the get-go that he needed to ruffle feathers on the show.
"I went to see [producer Mark Burnett] at a restaurant [in a] hotel called Shutters at the beginning, before the pilot, and he said, 'We're looking for a real a****** and you're it,'" he told Us Weekly.
While Kevin's co-stars often speak of how pleasant he is off camera, Mr. Wonderful has certainly leaned in to his mean-spirited character on the popular ABC show.
Keeping clicking to see how Kevin feels about being called the "most hated man" on TV…
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"Shark Tank" has become a major success, and its main stars have essentially become household names. In Kevin O'Leary's case, he's even won a few awards that others might not want to bring attention to.
"I've won the Most Villainous Guy on TV [award] twice. I'm so proud of that," he said. "Sure, we've won a few Emmys, but winning the award as the Most Hated Man, that's hard to do. I'm so proud of it."
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Reality TV shows generally don't have a long lifespan. "Shark Tank," which is about to begin its 15th season, is one of the exceptions.
"The premise was for reality TV, if you got five years, that was a huge run. And for the first few years it struggled, but then it captured the imagination of everybody that had inspiration to be an entrepreneur in America, and that's everybody," Kevin O'Leary said. "It became a family show at the same time, it went geometric in its fourth year and we've never looked back."
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Over the years, the stars of "Shark Tank" have become like family, and they often tease each other. Kevin O'Leary might be the biggest good-natured pest of all.
"We've been working together for 15 years and I will say this — and this just shows you how much we like each other — I buy [Barbara Corcoran] a new broom every year so she can make it to California," he joked.
After being told he is "so mean to her," Mr. Wonderful argued otherwise: "I think of her like my great-grandmother, very lovingly," he quipped.
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Kevin O'Leary likes to say "there's only one Mr. Wonderful." That's true. Interestingly enough, there were basically two Robert Herjavecs.
While Kevin was seemingly toward the top of the "Shark Tank" casting list, the same couldn't be said for Robert, who told Us Weekly he only got the gig after someone rather high profile bowed out.
"They were already starting to shoot and they had somebody else that was going to be me — somebody who was actually pretty famous, we can't say — and then it didn't work out," Robert said. "So [producer Mark Burnett] called me. I was actually skiing, and he said we're doing this show called 'Shark Tank' with Kevin. You should come and do it. And I said, 'Great. Where do you shoot?' He said, 'California. Can you be here by tomorrow?' And we got a visa in 24 hours. It was incredible."
