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Cris Abrego is an American television producer, writer, and former CEO of Endemol Shine North America. Abrego is now the Chairman of Banijay America Group and president and CEO of Endemol Shine Holdings.
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Cris Abrego is an American television producer, writer, and former CEO of Endemol Shine North America. Abrego is now the Chairman of Banijay America Group and president and CEO of Endemol Shine Holdings.
Abrego grew up in El Monte, California. He was a wrestler at California State University, Fullerton before graduating and moving to Los Angeles to work on reality television shows. [1]
After graduation from Mountain View High School, Abrego attended California State University, Fullerton. After graduation, he joined Bunim-Murray, working on The Real World and Road Rules television shows. [1] While working for Bunim-Murray, Abrego freelanced as a coordinating producer for Fear and Making the Band . [1] In addition, he was the co-creator and executive producer for a reality version of the movie The Cannonball Run. [1]
In 2002, Abrego created Brass Ring; a production company responsible for Next Action Star , Surf Girls and The Hitchhiker Chronicles . [1] Soon after, he created 51 Pictures. [1]
In 2003, Abrego's 51 Pictures merged with Mark Cronin's Mindless Entertainment to form 51 Minds Entertainment. The two met through Abrego's agent. [1] Together, they created The Surreal Life for the WB network. Soon after, the team created a string of "Celebreality" shows for VH1, including Strange Love , My Fair Brady , The Surreal Life Fame Games , Celebrity Paranormal Project , Flavor of Love , I Love New York , New York Goes to Hollywood , Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School , Rock of Love with Bret Michaels , I Love Money , America's Most Smartest Model , Rock of Love Girls: Charm School 2 , La La's Full Court Life , Real Chance of Love , For the Love of Ray J , Daisy of Love , Megan Wants a Millionaire , and Bridal Plasty .
In 2014, Abrego became co-chairman and co-CEO of Endemol North America along with Charlie Corwin. [2] In January 2016, he was named Co-Chairman, Endemol Shine Americas. In November 2016, Abrego became CEO of Endemol Shine North America, and Chairman of Endemol Shine Americas. [3]
VH1 is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communications and the original owner of MTV, and launched on January 1, 1985, in the former space of Turner Broadcasting System's short-lived Cable Music Channel.
Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality TV, comedy, game shows, entertainment, factual and children's programming.
Mary-Ellis Bunim was an American television producer and co-creator of MTV's The Real World and Road Rules.
The Surreal Life is an American reality television series that records a group of celebrities as they live together in Glen Campbell's former mansion in the Hollywood Hills for two weeks. The format of the show resembles that of The Real World and Road Rules, in that the cameras not only record the castmates' participation in group activities assigned to them, but also their interpersonal relationships and conflicts. The series is also likened to The Challenge in that previously known individuals from separate origins of entertainment are brought together into one cast. The show's first two seasons aired on The WB, and subsequent seasons were shown on VH1.
Bunim/Murray Productions is an entertainment production company based out of Glendale, California, and is considered a pioneer in the reality television genre. It is best known for The Real World, Road Rules and Bad Girls Club. Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray co-founded Bunim/Murray after agent Mark Itkin of the William Morris Agency put the two together to develop a scripted soap opera for MTV. When that was too expensive, they decided to try an unscripted soap and The Real World was born. "We knew within 20 minutes of shooting that we had a show," Bunim said. The company has expanded into music management, managing the pop punk/emo band A Cursive Memory. In March 2010, the company was acquired by Banijay Entertainment.
Flavor of Love is an American reality television dating game show starring Flavor Flav of the rap group Public Enemy.
Jonathan Murray is an American television producer and co-creator of MTV's The Real World, Road Rules and The Challenge, and the Oxygen Network's Bad Girls Club.
VH1 Brasil was a music channel from Viacom-owned Viacom International Media Networks The Americas. The network was launched in November 2005 on some cable systems, but it was not until May 2006 that it was launched on DirecTV Brazil, replacing MTV Latin America.
Charm School is a reality television series airing on VH1; it is a spin-off of Flavor of Love created by executive producers Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin. The first season, called Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School, is hosted by comedian Mo'Nique and features thirteen contestants from the first two seasons of Flavor of Love. The second season, called Rock of Love: Charm School, is hosted by Sharon Osbourne and features fourteen contestants from the first two seasons of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. The third season, called Charm School with Ricki Lake, is hosted by Ricki Lake and features contestants from Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels and Real Chance of Love. The show ostensibly acts as a finishing school for its contestants that helps develop proper etiquette. Season 1 offered a prize of $50,000, while Seasons 2 and 3 doubled the amount to $100,000. All three seasons offered the title of "Charm School Queen."
Endemol Shine North America is the American division of Banijay that was founded on March 15, 2002 as a merger of Shine Americas, Shine USA, and Reveille Productions.
Mark Cronin is an American television producer and writer.
Rock of Love with Bret Michaels is an American reality television dating game show. It stars Bret Michaels, the lead singer from the band Poison. The show closely resembles the show Flavor of Love. The first season featured 25 women competing to be Michaels' girlfriend. Each week, the women face challenges, the winner of which gets to go on a date with Michaels. Some of the challenges were based on situations that they might encounter if chosen to be Michaels' girlfriend. The first season winner was 24-year-old Jes Rickleff from Naperville, Illinois. At the reunion, she revealed that she did not have romantic feelings for Michaels, and that she thought that he should have chosen the runner-up, Heather.
The Fox Reality Awards is an awards show to honor achievements in reality television. It was broadcast by the Fox Reality Channel from 2006 to 2009 when the channel was replaced in 2010 by National Geographic Wild.
I Love Money is an American reality television series that aired on VH1 and was produced by 51 Minds Entertainment, a subsidiary of Endemol, and was a spin-off of Flavor of Love, Charm School, I Love New York, Rock of Love, Real Chance of Love, For the Love of Ray J, Daisy of Love and Megan Wants a Millionaire. Contestants on these shows competed in physical and mental challenges, aiming for a $250,000 grand prize. Created by executive producers Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin. The contestants of the first two seasons were located in Huatulco, Mexico for the duration of their time on the show, while the third and fourth season contestants were located in Manzanillo, Mexico.
51 Minds Entertainment is a production company specializing in reality TV, known for their "celebreality" programs on VH1. It was created in 2004 as a merger between Cris Abrego's 51 Pictures and Mark Cronin's Mindless Entertainment. In 2005, the company signed a two-year, seven series production deal with VH1. The company has been credited in helping revive VH1 ratings during this time. In 2008, the company was purchased by Endemol.
Endemol Shine Group B.V. was a Dutch production and distribution company of scripted and non-scripted content, responsible for programmes such as Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, The Money Drop, Fear Factor, MasterChef, Your Face Sounds Familiar, Peaky Blinders, Black Mirror, Humans, Grantchester and Tin Star.
Charlie Corwin is an American media executive and a producer of numerous movies and television series. He currently serves as CEO of SK Global, an independent content studio. In 2022, Centricus, the London-based private equity bank, acquired a majority stake in SK Global.
Michael Flutie is an American model agent, talent brand manager, and New York City-based media personality.
Banijay is a French television production and distribution company which is the world's largest international content producer and distributor with over 120 production companies across 22 territories, and a multi-genre catalogue containing over 120,000 hours of original programming. Headquartered in Paris, the company was founded in January 2008 by Stéphane Courbit, formerly president of Endemol France, and has risen since its inception, to become a €3bn turnover business. It is currently a subsidiary of FL Entertainment N.V., based in Amsterdam.
Shine Group was an international television production and distribution group with 26 production companies across 12 countries creating scripted and non-scripted content in the global marketplace.