''Cleveland Hustles'' is an hour-long American

reality TV series Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

created by LeBron James and

Maverick Carter Maverick Carter is an American sports-marketing businessman and media personality. Early life and education Maverick Carter was born on October 10, 1980 Carter spent most of his youth in Akron, Ohio and Atlanta, Georgia. Carter grew up the son ...

, which aired for an 8-episode season between August 24 and October 12, 2016, on

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

. In it, aspiring entrepreneurs competed to open one of four physical stores in the Gordon Square Arts District under the mentorship of a Cleveland investor.

About

The show was produced by SpringHill Entertainment and Magical Elves, with LeBron James and

as executive producers. It was hosted by Bonin Bough, with Kumar Arora, Alan Glazen, Kathy Futey, and Jonathan Sawyer as its panel of investors, and LeBron James making several cameos. The show was based in the Gordon Square Arts District, a commercial hub in Cleveland's Detroit-Shoreway neighbourhood near

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. Cleveland had been second on the Distressed Community Index, and fourth on the list of dying cities. CNBC announced that it would "help a neighborhood that desperately needs investment", and may have assisted Gordon Square's revitalization. One business owner, however, suggested that "To create good TV, you have to create a villain. That villain was vacancies", and investor Sawyer confirmed that "the neighborhood was going to be there with or without the show... It was going in that direction, is going in that direction and buildings are still affordable". In each of the first four episodes, two businesses presented competing pitches and ran a pop-up shop, with one of the businesses being selected for mentoring and financing. The remaining four episodes focussed on stages in the setup and opening of the selected stores.

Cast

Bonin Bough: former executive VP for PR firms

Weber Shandwick Weber Shandwick is a marketing communications firm formed in 2001 by merging the Weber Group, Shandwick International and BSMG. The company is part of global agency network Interpublic Group (IPG), as part of the parent company's IPG DXTRA opera ...

and Ruder Finn who then joined

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

in 2008. Serving as its senior global director for digital and social media, his work resulted in '' Fast Company'' naming him one of its "100 Most Creative People In Business" in 2011. Between 2012 and 2016, he worked for multinational food company

Mondelez International Mondelez International, Inc. ( ), often styled Mondelēz, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food industry, food, holding and drink industry, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an ...

, where he became its chief media and e-commerce officer. Kumar Arora: CEO of investment firm Aroridex, founder of designer sunglasses company Rogue Eyewear, and investor in iLTHY, a streetwear apparel company. Kathy Futey: A wealth management advisor who previously worked at

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

. She serves on the board of the

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these i ...

(MOCA) and the Cuyahoga Valley

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ad ...

. Alan Glazen: A neighborhood developer, and retired advertising executive. He co-founded the Cleveland International Film Festival, and was once mayor of the village of

Bentleyville, Ohio Bentleyville is a village in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 864 at the 2010 census. Bentleyville was laid out in 1831 by Adamson Bentley, and named for him. Geography Bentleyville is located at (41.413520, -81.412996 ...

Jonathon Sawyer: Chef and owner of three Cleveland restaurants, including the Greenhouse Tavern for which he won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2015 as ''Best Chef: Great Lakes''. He was a finalist on the Food Network's 2016 Chopped Grill Masters series.

Episodes

References

{{CNBC primetime programming 2016 American television series debuts 2010s American reality television series CNBC original programming Television shows set in Cleveland 2016 American television series endings