Fred Christenson


Frederick John Christenson is an American television executive and professional poker player.

Early life

Christenson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The son of Martha Ann Thomson and Glen Oliver Christenson, raised in Tucson, Arizona. Christenson attended Hastings College in Nebraska on Athletic Scholarship to play football. Later he transferred to University of Arizona, earning Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.

Television career

Christenson was first hired at ESPN as a mailroom clerk in 1987. His first job required him to edit footage of World Class Championship Wrestling. He was promoted to production assistant, then associate producer working on various shows including: SportsCenter, college football studio scoreboard show and NFL GameDay show, winning Sports Emmy in 1988 as Outstanding Studio Show. Christenson moved to Los Angeles, producing Los Angeles Raiders football pre-season television games, weekly television show and radio telecasts and broadcasts from 1989-1994. He returned to work for ESPN in 1994, producing UpClose:PrimeTime with Roy Firestone in Los Angeles.
Christenson relocated to the East Coast in 1997 to act as coordinating producer on ESPN’s SportsCentury project. SportsCentury: The Top 50 and Beyond won the 2001 Sports Emmy for Edited Sports Series/Anthology. While Christenson was a senior producer for SportsCentury, the series won the first Peabody Award ever given to ESPN.
In 2001, Christenson was also an executive on a season-long documentary of University of Arizona’s football team.
Christenson then went to programming and acquisition responsibilities for ESPN Classic, ESPN Programming Department and ESPN Original Entertainment as the senior director of programming and acquisitions and the director of brand management of ESPN Classic. In 2003, he secured the long-term rights acquisition to the World Series of Poker, and obtained approval of hole-card camera usage in television coverage from the gaming licensing governing body of Nevada. Christenson and Mark Shapiro popularized the World Series of Poker.

Six Flags

Christenson left ESPN after nearly 20 years of service in 2006 and went to work for Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder’s newly acquired company Six Flags, Inc. as Regional Vice President of Parks Strategy and Management.
After nearly five-years, Christenson left SIX, returning to television as programming director for dick clark productions, inc. in New York City.

Poker career

A long time poker player, he has played professionally in five different World Series of Poker events, cashing in once. Christenson was invited to play in 2005 World Poker Tour, Professional Poker Tour, and 5-Star Poker Classic, finishing 12th out of 248 professional players. Christenson plays in various casino cash games and tournaments in Las Vegas and Connecticut and was a regular player online with Poker Stars until Black Friday.

Filmography

Christenson has appeared on the credits of the following productions: