The Profit season 8, episode 4 preview: Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

The Profit season 8 is going to try the food thing again—except this week with a different kind of pie.

Tuesday’s episode “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” (get the Eurythmics reference?) sees Marcus Lemonis coming to help James Gourmet Pies. Owner James Edwards has the classic entrepreneur’s dilemma: he’s found regional success but has dreams of national fame. He hopes Marcus will be able to take his business to the next level.

The installment will probably give viewers some deja vu. It takes place in Utah, which is also where the season premiere was filmed (at Harvest Lane Honey). It’s also the second time The Profit has done a food-themed hour in three weeks (after the difficulties at Grey Block Pizza). It’s interesting to have the show go to the same well, both location- and topic-wise, already this season.

But it doesn’t matter as much as it would on other reality shows because longtime viewers of the CNBC series know that Marcus has worked with numerous food businesses in the past, from Key West Key Lime Pie Company to B Sweet. The latter is relevant here because Marcus has revealed on Instagram that B Sweet owner Barb Batiste guest stars in “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” to help James. It’s always fun when previous participants come back to share their knowledge with new business owners, because audiences get to see that they’re still part of Marcus’ portfolio and they get to give their own advice.

Where The Profit is really going to hook people, though, is just getting back to what makes this show fantastic. From the first ten minutes that you can watch below James seems like a very high-energy owner, and Marcus is already a high-energy investor, so this could be one of those episodes that’s simply fun from start to finish. It won’t be easy—the first thing James has to learn is that one product does not make an entire business—but it’ll be a nice change of pace.

The last two episodes have included more conflict between Marcus and the owners than usual, so why not get back to situations where it’s more about dreaming too big rather than butting heads over money? Stories like James Edwards’ are what makes entrepreneurship great, and Marcus is at his best when he’s teaching (both the investee and the audience) rather than having to mediate. “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” ought to play to all of The Profit‘s strengths.

The Profit airs Tuesdays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on CNBC. If you’ve missed any of season 8 so far, you can catch up via CNBC on Demand (through your cable provider) or on Peacock.

Article content is (c)2020-2023 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram.