Kevin O’Leary ‘Tried’ to Stop Mark Cuban From Leaving Shark Tank

Kevin O’Leary wasn’t ready for Mark Cuban to say goodbye to Shark Tank.

“I tried to turn him around on that decision because he’s been part of the DNA of the show for so long,” O’Leary, 70, exclusively told Us Weekly during an interview with Daniel Lubetzky. “But I understand his reasons, and he thought a lot about it and he made it for family reasons and I understand exactly why. Obviously, we’re going to miss him.”

O’Leary shared that the last taping of Shark Tank with Cuban, 66, was “very emotional,” noting that the essence of the show doesn’t lie with the sharks. He explained that the “real stars” of the show are the entrepreneurs.

“They will go on and on and on and on, and that’s what we all understand and our job is to nurture them, fund them, try and pick the winners — because we don’t get it right all the time — and provide the platform and be those ambassadors for the American dream,” he told Us.

While Cuban may no longer be a shark, his friendship with O’Leary won’t be coming to an end.

“I’m going to run into Mark a lot,” O’Leary told Us. “First of all, we have a bunch of deals over 16 years working together. But also, he’s out on a venture trail. So am I. We run into each other all the time. I consider him a close friend. I mean, he’s come to my home and met my kids. What else do we do after 16 years?”

Cuban revealed in November 2023 that he would be leaving Shark Tank. “This is our 15th year, and next year, our 16th year, is gonna be my last year,” Cuban said on the “All the Smoke” Showtime basketball podcast. “So I got one more year to go.”

After being with the show for more than a decade, Cuban explained he felt like “it’s time” to move on. (Cuban joined the series as a guest star during season 2 in 2011, signing on as a full-time panelist in season 3.)

Cuban gushed that he has a lot of love for the show as well as the entrepreneurs. “I love it because it sends the message [that] the American dream is alive and well,” he explained. “I feel like in doing Shark Tank all these years, we’ve trained multiple generations of entrepreneurs that if somebody can come from Iowa or Sacramento or wherever, and show up on the carpet of Shark Tank and show their business and get a deal, it’s going to inspire generations of kids. That’s what happens, right?”

He continued, “Now we’ve got people coming on saying, ‘I watched you when I was 10 years old.’ I’m like, ‘F—. But we’re helping them, right? I’ve invested in, I don’t know how many hundreds of companies.”

Season 16 of Shark Tank airs on ABC Fridays at 8 p.m. ET and streams on Hulu the following day.

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi