51 Minds Entertainment (or Fifty One Minds Entertainment) is a production company specializing in

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

, known for their "celebreality" programs on

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

. It was created in 2004 as a merger between

Cris Abrego 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. Early life Abrego grew up in El Monte, C ...

's 51 Pictures (formerly Brass Ring Entertainment) and

Mark Cronin Mark Cronin is an American television producer and writer. Biography Cronin grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Upper Darby High School and the University of Pennsylvania. At the later, h ...

's Mindless Entertainment. In 2005, the company signed a two-year, seven series production deal with

. The company has been credited in helping revive VH1 ratings during this time. In 2008, the company was purchased by

Endemol Endemol B.V. (stylized in all lowercase) 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 gen ...

(later

Endemol Shine Group Endemol Shine Group B.V. (stylized as EndemolShineGroup) 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'', '' Fe ...

, now

Banijay Entertainment Banijay Entertainment S.A. (formerly Banijay Group and later Banijay) is a French multinational television production and distribution company which is the world's largest international content producer and distributor with over 130 production co ...

). In 2010, the company branched out in Internet distributed programming, producing '' The Tester'' for the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

. Other popular shows include ''Below Deck'' and their franchises on the

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

network

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels * Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 * Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing compa ...

References

Banijay Endemol Television production companies of the United States Mass media companies established in 2004 American companies established in 2004 Companies based in Los Angeles 2008 mergers and acquisitions {{tv-production-company-stub American subsidiaries of foreign companies