Review: New Dragons’ Den host Brian Scudamore acquits himself well in first episode

The first episode of season 19 celebrates Scudamore and his entrepreneurial journey, as well as the city of Vancouver

Three seems to be the charm for Brian Scudamore. That’s how many auditions it took for him to land a gig as a judge on Dragons’ Den, one of CBC’s flagship shows wherein successful Canadian businesspeople decide whether to invest in budding entrepreneurs and their businesses. Three is also how many companies Scudamore’s O2e Brands oversees, with 1-800-Got-Junk?, Wow 1 Day Painting and Shack Shine all part of the portfolio.

Luckily, it didn’t seem to take Scudamore three episodes to get his footing. At a special viewing of the first episode of season 19 of Dragons’ Den at the Scotiabank Theatre in Downtown Vancouver, scores of Scudamore’s employees (who hooted and hollered whenever their boss was on screen) were on hand to view him handle himself quite well in the Den. Scudamore was professional and personable—seeming both polished and comfortable on TV while still getting in some off-the-cuff comments.

Other than the lengthy introduction of Scudamore at the beginning—which heavily features Vancouver as well—the episode featured a lot of what we’ve come to expect from the Den: the panel cast some judgement, put some people on the hot seat and made others very happy.

[Spoilers ahead if you really don’t want to know anything about the episode.]

One of the businesses that applied on the show, Ontario-based Detailing Knights, was clearly positioned as a good opportunity for Scudamore—a mobile and eco-friendly car-washing service that offers franchise opportunities.

Scudamore, who, along with fellow Dragon Arlene Dickinson, was on hand to talk after the episode, did end up striking a deal with Detailing Knights on the show. But, when pressed in front of hundreds of employees about whether Detailing Knights would be coming into the company’s fold, he said that while he was still interested in doing something with the company and its founder, Ryan O’Neil Knight, there were details that needed to be worked out.

He did mention, however, that he has done two deals with companies on the show that the team would know about soon. We’ll be watching the rest of the season diligently to see how the Vancouver entrepreneur continues to acquit himself.

Also in attendance were the founders of Vancouver-based Ryercat, which makes and sells cat toothbrushes. You can find out whether they secured a deal and evaluate Scudamore’s performance here.