51 Minds Entertainment
production company
51 Minds Entertainment (or Fifty One Minds Entertainment) is a production company founded by Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin, that specializes in reality TV. It was created in 2004 as a merger between Cris Abrego's 51 Pictures (formerly Brass Ring Entertainment) and Mark Cronin's Mindless Entertainment.
The company is best known for producing the "celebreality" programs on VH1 (such as Flavor of Love, Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, Real Chance of Love, etc.) and other shows such as The Surreal Life, La La's Full Court Life, and the Below Deck franchise.
History
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.
In 2009, after the Murder of Jasmine Fiore case, VH1 canceled Megan Wants a Millionaire and the third season of I Love Money, and 51 Minds was forced to reimburse VH1 for over $12 million in losses.
In 2010, the company branched out in Internet distributed programming, producing The Tester for the PlayStation Network. Other popular shows include Below Deck and their franchises on the NBCUniversal network Bravo.
In 2014, Cronin left the company to form Little Wooden Boat Productions, but still continued to work on shows by 51 Minds, such as Below Deck and Idiotest.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4640068. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “51 Minds Entertainment” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.