VH1 caught up with Mark Cronin and Cris Abrego, the brains behind several reality series, for a candid interview.  On the first day of the Rock of Love Girls: Charm School shoot, they talked to the fans about the nature of their work and what might be on the way.  

Cronin and Abrego are best known for their work on numerous celebreality spin-offs, namely Strange Love, Flavor of Love, I Love New York, Rock of Love, I Love Money, and of course, Charm School.  As creators and executive producers of the show, the pair has since dealt with a variety of difficulties as well as memorable moments.

Asked about how hard it was to come up with Charm School, they pondered on the idea that the more horrid you act on a reality series, the better the ratings are.  Cronin said that Charm School was tough to put on since “it's a competition to be a good girl.”

Cronin somehow credits the contestants' relentless nastiness to the success of the show.  “We always worry that they won't, that it won't be a good story, that they'll come in and fold their arms and be sweet to each other, but fortunately these characters are so unstoppable, they have to say what's on their mind.  If they don't like you, they're going to tell you no matter what.  They never stop being themselves.  That's what keeps it going.”

Abrego added, “Ultimately, the premise of the show, because there's this format of transformation, makes it interesting to watch.  We found on the first Charm School that we two types of girls, and both were fascinating.  We had girls who were transforming and were highly emotional as a result, and we had girls who fought the transformation or faked it, and behind-the-scenes were still themselves.”

The two of them were heavily criticized for what happened with Flavor of Love, which bred the first season of Charm School in the first place.  With the latter series being a response to the former, they decided to make Charm School 2 a spin-off of Rock of Love instead.  There was less criticism from the Bret Michaels-led show after all.

“It seemed like people just embraced the bad behavior.  Maybe they were just used to it by then? When Flavor of Love came out, it was outrageous,” Cronin admitted.  He mentioned that things weren't always a fairy tale like on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette as well.  Things were more real than that. “That just seemed so fake to people that when we did Flavor of Love, people were shocked because it was so fun to see a straightforward approach. By the time we got to Rock of Love, we'd done Flavor of Love, Flavor of Love 2 and I Love New York.  Now, it wasn't so crazy that these people who were looking for love were acting out.”

There was always the question about whether the girls are in it for the money or the man.  Abrego said that “For Rock of Love 2, there was a whole casting pool of women who'd fallen in love with Bret just from watching him on Rock of Love. They were for real.”

Cronin followed it up with, “Bret had a big population of women head-over-heels, and like Cris said, they walked in that way.  You know, he's a good-looking, charming, sweet, funny guy.”

Ending the interview, it seems as though these two have no plans of stopping from propagating these sorts of shows.  To them, there will never be enough spin-offs.  Like Cronin said, “I keep saying we keep doing the same show, we're just changing the title. Sometimes we change the rules. Sometimes we change the prize. Sometimes it's Flav, sometimes it's $100,000. But either way: same show.”


-Maria Gonzalez, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: VH1
(Image Courtesy of Getty Images)