Shark Tank: Why Barbara Corcoran's Introduction To Mark Cuban Was 'Embarrassing'
"Shark Tank" is an ABC juggernaut, having earned 22 Emmy nominations, four consecutive wins, and millions of devoted viewers. But there were lean times, too, including a shaky first season in 2009, after which the show was almost canceled.
Real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran has been there since the beginning, and she distinctly remembers when new cast member Mark Cuban joined the fray. Their first meeting, she said in a TikTok video, was her most embarrassing moment on "Shark Tank."
"It was 5:30 in the morning and I was in LA rushing to the Sony lot to shoot my fourth season of 'Shark Tank,'" Corcoran recalled. When she jumped in the van, she saw a stranger in the backseat who she mistook for a bellhop. "I had three big pieces of luggage, so I decided to ask him, 'Hey, do you mind helping me put my luggage in the back of the van?' 'Yes, ma'am,' he said." When they got to set, the friendly stranger helped load Corcoran's luggage into her trailer without delay.
Corcoran continued, "Two hours later, I walk onto the set all dolled up, and I look at the guy next to me, and it's the luggage guy sitting in the seat next to me. So I said to him, 'What are you doing here?' He said, 'I'm Mark Cuban. Nice to meet you.'"
Cuban had no problem acting like a gentleman
Barbara Corcoran may have been mortified by her obliviousness, but Mark Cuban didn't mind being her temporary bellhop. "Of course I [remember it]," Cuban told CNBC Make It. "It was fun. I was excited to meet Barbara. I would have cooked her lunch if she asked. So carrying her bags and being a gentleman for her was easy."
The anecdote only endeared Cuban to fans more, and they flocked to the comments of Corcoran's video to say as much. "I love him even more now. Didn't think that was possible," wrote one fan, with others pointing out the billionaire's humility.
Following the pair's awkward meeting, they quickly established chemistry on "Shark Tank," sometimes going in on deals together. In one Season 14 episode, Corcoran and Cuban secured a joint deal with Braxton Fleming and his company Stealth Bros & Co., making him the first Black trans contestant to get a deal on "Shark Tank."
Cuban and Corcoran are two of the show's most aggressive investors. According to Forbes, Corcoran is the most likely to close her deals when the camera stops rolling, and Cuban has invested in twice as many companies as the other sharks. With those competitive instincts in mind, the two have also been known to duke it out in the shark tank — though the considerate decorum of their first meeting still persists.