‘I won’t bother watching next week’: Dragons’ Den return is branded ‘boring’ as viewers ‘fast forward’ BBC show over ‘cold’ and ‘self-important’ new investors and ‘unoriginal’ pitches

Dragons’ Den’s latest season returned to our screens last night after a hiatus over the summer – but its comeback has failed to impress viewers.

Following the BBC programme, which aired at 8pm, fans took to X to complain that the quality of pitches had gone downhill and that the two new investors were ‘cold’.

‘Queens of commerce’ Jenna Meek and Susie Ma were brought in to replace Touker Suleyman and Sara Davies, alongside returning investors Steven Bartlett, Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones.

However, viewers said they ‘fast-forwarded’ the latest episode of series 23 because the ‘cold’ and ‘self-important’ businesswomen were not a good fit for the show.

‘I’m not warming to Jenna and Susie at all,’ one person wrote on social media. ‘Seems very cold.’

Another suggested there was ‘some tension between the two female guest judges’, who have both founded successful beauty brands.

Jenna, 34, is the CEO of Refy Beauty, one of the UK’s fastest-growing beauty companies with over £40 million in annual turnover. Her net worth is estimated to be over £52 million.

Meanwhile, businesswoman Susie Ma has scaled her skincare brand Tropic from a market stall into a £68 million business.

Susie confirmed she would appear as a guest judge for season 23 in a social media statement last October, adding she hoped to ‘back the old’, while Jenna – who quit her job as a product developer at Burberry in 2015 – made her debut earlier this year.

‘This isn’t the same without Sara and Touker,’ another added, after Touker, 72,  confirmed he quit the show ‘after 10 extraordinary years’ in a statement on social media. 

Fans also lamented that the products were quite ‘samey’ to previous seasons, as the Dragons heard pitches for a ‘powder to liquid’ shampoo and conditioner, a traditional sweets shop, a spice company selling ‘high-quality blends’ and a sustainable travel company. 

One unimpressed viewer wrote: ‘Watching this again after missing [the] last couple of series and it all feels very samey…hair care, spicy food mixes, sustainable travel. I had not seen the sweet shop idea before on the show, but have seen those sort of sweet shops on high streets.’ 

‘Shampoo, sweets and food,’ another summed up the pitches. ‘Where are the inventors and real entrepreneurs?’  

It comes after Touker penned an emotional message announcing his departure from the BBC show after a decade as a Dragon. 

Touker – who joined the show for series 13 – has 50 years of retail and manufacturing experience and is best known for owning Hawes & Curtis and womenswear brand Ghost.

Explaining he was ready to ‘pass the torch’, Touker said:’It has been an immense privilege to sit in that chair, to meet so many passionate and talented entrepreneurs and to invest in business and people I truly believed in.

‘The show gave me a platform not only to invest in leading British founders and companies but to share hard-won wisdom built over decades in business – and I hope that, in some small way, I made a difference to those who stood opposite me.

‘At 72, I find myself reflecting on what matters most. I am proud of every deal made, every pitch challenged and every founder I had the honour of backing.

‘But I firmly believe that great institutions must evolve, and it is time for new blood to take my seat in the Den and bring their own vision to this brilliant show.

‘Stepping back from Dragons will give me more time to mentor the entrepreneurs I have invested in and to give back the 50 years of business experience I have accumulated.

‘If I can help the next generation avoid the pitfalls I’ve faced, seize the opportunities almost missed and build businesses they are truly proud of, then that will be the most rewarding chapter of my career yet.

‘To the BBC, to my fellow Dragons past and present, to the production team and above all to the entrepreneurs who dared to walk through those doors – thank you.

‘It has been one of the great joys of my career: The fire in the Den burns on. I simply pass the torch,’ he concluded. 

His final Dragons’ Den episodes will air throughout this season, Touker confirmed, adding that ‘fans of the series can still catch me in action one last time’. 

Touker began his retail career at the age of 18 and soon established a clothing manufacturer supplying to some of the biggest names in the UK.

Born in Famagusta, Cyprus, Touker moved to the UK with his family in 1958 at the age of five before settling in Bermondsey, London.

After leaving school, the businessman took up a job at an accounting firm, before starting his own fashion business in the early 1980s.

He soon started supplying high-street mainstays including Marks & Spencer before going on to acquire a series of major clothes retail businesses.

The fashion entrepreneur, who is worth an estimated £200 million, now lives in a £20 million modernist house in south London.