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Dragons’ Den prepares for season 2

TORONTO (CP) _ Quirky ideas, lots of money and five ruthless judges _ it’s the winning combination behind the CBC-TV business-reality series "Dragons’ Den."

The show, where colourful would-be entrepreneurs from across the country try to sell their ideas to a panel of successful business moguls known as "the dragons," was one of the public broadcaster’s biggest hits of 2006.

Last season _ six shows aired in October and November _ the show had its share of tears, deals and off-the-mark ideas, including a Kegel exerciser and a bath water heater.

But the dragons say the second season, airing this fall, promises to have more drama and wackier ideas.

"We had a pitch for a banana holder this year, and no, not as a sexual device," said Robert Herjavec, known as the "emotional dragon," after he shed a few tears last year.

"But here’s the crazy thing, we were ready to make fun of it, and they had already sold 700,000 of them," said Herjavec, who has made his millions in Internet security software.

"I think the difference this year is the crazy ideas are a little more marketable," he said during a break in production.

First-time dragon Arlene Dickinson, the only female on the panel, says she’s been pleasantly surprised by the diversity in ideas that have been pitched.

"We’ve seen everything from a yoga mat, to soup to underwear, and everything in between," said Dickinson, president of a Calgary-based marketing company.

"You see this entrepreneurial spirit that has really driven Canada, and you see some ideas that are really great, and others where you think, ‘Why did they think of that?’ "

Herjavec says a small number of the deals actually go to fruition. Winning ideas from last season include a nutritional salad dressing, whose promoter saw a sharp spike in sales after she appeared on the show, according to a "Dragons’ Den" publicist.

"We see these people for 15 minutes, and they’re asking us for a million dollars _ obviously it doesn’t really work like that in the real world," Herjavec says. "But once the cameras go off, we go through due diligence if we have accepted an idea."

Rejected ideas significantly outnumber winning pitches on the show. So then what is the appeal to TV viewers?

"I think everybody in this country believes they’re one idea away from a million bucks," Herjavec says.

"Dragons’ Den" is a Canadian version of a British series of the same name.

According to CBC, it pulled in more than half a million viewers an episode in its first season.

The second season returns with 10 episodes in early October.