51 minds Entertainment
 
 
Mindless Entertainment founder, Mark Cronin has a broad and successful background creating, writing and producing innovative reality, comedy, and dramatic television. An Ivy League graduate with a degree in Chemical Engineering, Cronin made a terrible mistake and spent five years working as an engineer in research and marketing. But all the while he was moonlighting as a freelance joke writer for an award winning newsbreak spoof on Nick-at-Nite. Cronin finally wised up and switched careers permanently when he joined Howard Stern’s nationally syndicated Saturday night television show (the infamous “Channel 9 Show”) as one of the only two staff writers in 1991. Quickly, his responsibilities on the show expanded to include scripting entire episodes, producing celebrity interviews, and producing comedic field pieces. He went on to contribute to Stern’s national radio show and serve as producer/writer on all of his television projects, including his NEW YEAR’S ROTTEN EVE pay per view special - the highest grossing non-sports pay per view event of all time. Cronin also scripted an entire E! Entertainment Television special for Stern’s book Miss America. Moving from New York to LA, Cronin became the Head Writer for the pilot and first season of MTV’s hit dating show SINGLED OUT (starring Jenny McCarthy) and went on to run the show for its two highest rated seasons. From MTV, Cronin moved to the Fox network to Co-Executive produce their first primetime event game show BIG DEAL. From there, he returned to late night and served as Supervising Producer of Comedy for THE KEENEN IVORY WAYANS SHOW. Mindless Entertainment In 1997 Mark founded Mindless Entertainment, a production company dedicated to groundbreaking television production and formats. Mindless cut its teeth in studio based talk shows and game shows including THE X SHOW which ran 400 episodes on FX, BEAT THE GEEKS for Comedy Central, AMERICAS MOST TALENTED KIDS on PAX, Ultimate Film Fanatic on IFC and the competition shows CRAM and EXTREME DODGEBALL on GSN. Mark is proud of the fact that every single show he has created and run has been renewed by its network for multiple seasons. Most recently, Cronin’s Mindless Entertainment teamed up with Cris Abrego’s 51 Pictures to form 51 Minds – the company that produces VH1’s biggest and most successful lineup of reality television ever. Anchored by the flagship show The Surreal Life (now casting it’s seventh season) and buttressed by very popular spin-off shows including Strange Love (with Flavor Flav and Brigette Nielsen), My Fair Brady (with Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry), THE Surreal Life Fame Games, the upcoming Celebrity Paranormal Project, and of course, FLAVOR OF LOVE the highest rated series in VH1 history, the company has grown into one of the largest and most successful reality production companies in the business. Cris Abrego brings creativity, insight, and technical ability to new levels as a Producer. With over 12 years experience in television, Abrego is most sought after for his proven blockbuster combination of creative ideas and brave production techniques in reality television. Starting out as a cub-producer in local news – and even taking a turn as an on-air sports anchor – Abrego began to hone his skills in the technical aspects of production. Next came an extended run with Bunim-Murray Productions. He supervised production and post-production for the top rated MTV show Road Rules for five of its most successful seasons. He oversaw on-location production in Mexico, Central America, New Zealand, Paris, Germany, Fiji, and Australia. Moving into the freelance world, Abrego became supervising producer for MTV’s FEAR, coordinating producer on ABC’s hit reality show Making The Band, and produced and directed Young Cops, a cutting edge, hi-definition reality pilot for ABC. The first show Cris co-created and executive produced was Cannonball Run, a reality version of the popular movie, for USA Network. Finally forming his own production company 51 Pictures in 2004, Abrego created and served as executive producer on NBC’s Next Action Star with producing partner Joel Silver. He also created and executive produced MTV’s Surf Girls, The Hitchhiker Chronicles for FX, and The Surreal Life for The WB. The latter, moved on to a hugely successful third season at VH1 and became the cornerstone of the network’s new Celebreality programming block. A sixth season has recently concluded and a special all-star competition-style version titled Surreal Life: Fame Games will debut in January 2007. His domination of the Celebreality genre continues further. The first two seasons of the Surreal Life spin-off Flavor of Love - also co-created and executive produced by Abrego - went on to become the highest rated programs in the network’s history. My Fair Brady, another hit spin-off, featuring Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry, has completed two seasons and is currently in production on a third. Additionally, Abrego is co-creating and executive producing a documentary style reality series chronicling the comeback of hip hop mega-producer Irv Gotti and there are two more Flavor of Love spin-offs in the works. Cris Abrego’s customers and colleagues recognize him as a producer who can create, develop and most importantly execute in a rich palette of reality programming -- from competition to comedy. He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, American Association of Producers and a graduate of California State University in Fullerton with a Bachelor of Arts Communication. The Company Story TV
 
 
Mark Cronin Executive Producer & Co- Founder Cris Abrego Executive Producer & Co- Founder