Mark Cuban’s days on Shark Tank are supposedly numbered — but fellow Shark Lori Greiner has a dream replacement in mind for that eventuality.
Greiner walked the red carpet at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Gala at The Beverly Hills Hotel on Thursday, where she spoke with ET’s Denny Directo and responded to Cuban’s recent remarks about his plans to leave the show.
“You never know. I really can’t even talk about it,” she admitted. “We’re in season 15 and his announcement was for another year from now.”
Late last month, Cuban sat down for a conversation on the Showtime podcast All the Smoke, and during his sprawling chat with hosts Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Cuban revealed that he planned to leave the show after season 16.
“This is our 15th year, and next year, our 16th year, is gonna be my last year,” Cuban said, without reservation. “So I got one more year to go.”
Cuban explained simply that after all these years on the series — which is currently airing its 15th season — he feels “it’s time.”
Christopher Willard/ABC via Getty Images
However, as Grenier explained to ET, “We still have season 16, and that would be 2025, right? It’s 2024, that would be 2025, I don’t know. It’s so far out. We still have [him] for a year, at least, right?”
“But people make announcements and then, you know, it spirals,” she added.
While it seems as though Grenier isn’t totally sold on the idea that Cuban will actually leave the series when the time comes, she admitted that she’s always had one ideal mogul and entrepreneur that she’d love to see take a seat among the investors.
“I’ve wanted Oprah for years!” Grenier shared. “So what can I say? Let’s manifest that! Yes, world, manifest that!”
Lori Greiner walks the carpet at The Hollywood Reporter's annual Women in Entertainment gala in Beverly Hills on Dec. 7 – Michael Tran / AFP via Getty Images
During Cuban’s podcast appearance on All the Smoke, he reflected on his time with the show, sharing, “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 Shark Tank and show their business and get a deal, it’s going to inspire generations of kids.”
“We’ve got people coming on and saying, ‘I watched you when I was 10 years old.’ I’m like, f**k,” Cuban added. “I’ve invested in, I don’t know how many hundreds of companies.”
Cuban first appeared as a guest Shark in season 2, and joined the show full time in season 3. He’s remained with the show since. Season 15 of Shark Tank ticked off in September.
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