Morales, Vanderlinde promoted to production VPs at Banijay’s BMP, 51 Minds

Margaret Morales and Mike Vanderlinde

Margaret Morales and Mike Vanderlinde have been promoted to VPs of production at Banijay’s US unscripted companies Bunim/Murray Productions (BMP) and 51 Minds Entertainment.

In their expanded roles, Morales and Vanderlinde will oversee physical production on a range of documentary series, competition shows, docs and branded content for the two Banijay-owned labels. They both previously served as executives in charge of production.

Morales has been with BMP since 2009, working on shows including The Challenge, The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Born This Way, while Vanderlinde, who did a stint at BMP from 2008 to 2010 before returning to the fold in 2018, has overseen titles such as Vanderpump Villa, The Girls, The Never Ever Mets, The Family Stallone and Buddy Games.

BMP and 51 Minds produce series including The Challenge (MTV, Paramount+), Below Deck (Bravo, Peacock), Vanderpump Villa (Hulu), The Chrisleys: Back to Reality (Lifetime), Never Ever Mets (OWN), Confessions of Octomom (Lifetime), A Killer Among Friends (ID) and the upcoming Netflix documentary series Dirty John.

Earlier this week, Netflix announced it had greenlit a BMP-produced survival competition series fronted by Alan Ritchson.

The promotions were revealed by Zachary Klein, chief operating officer at both BMP and 51 Minds. Julie Pizzi is the president and CEO of both companies.

“[Morales and Vanderlinde’s] combination of operational expertise, creative partnership and global production experience has been instrumental to some of our most complex and high-profile series, and we look forward to their continued leadership across our slate in their new roles,” said Klein.