| Sábado Gigante | |
|---|---|
| Format | Variety |
| Created by | Don Francisco |
| Presented by | Don Francisco with Pedro De Paul (1986-1991) Javier Romero (1991-present) |
| Country of origin | Chile (1962-1986) United States (1986-present) |
| Language(s) | Spanish |
| No. of seasons | ~50 |
| No. of episodes | ~2,000+ |
| Production | |
| Running time | Approx. 2 hours, 15 minutes (without commercials) 3 hours (with commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Canal 13 (Chile) Univision (USA) |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original run | August 8, 1962 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Sábado Gigante ("Giant Saturday") is a Spanish-language television show that is Univision's longest-running program and the longest-running variety TV show in the world.[1] Sábado Gigante is an eclectic and frenetic mix of various contests, human-interest stories, and live entertainment. From its start in 1962, it has been hosted by Chilean TV star Mario Kreutzberger under the stage name of Don Francisco. Pedro De Paul began serving as co-host in 1986; that role was taken over by Javier Romero in 1991.
It currently airs Saturday nights at 8 p.m. ET on Univision; as such, the program is currently one of only three remaining first-run primetime programs airing on Saturday nights on any of the American commercial broadcast television networks, along with CBS's 48 Hours Mystery and Fox's COPS. A new episode has been produced every week throughout the show's history, with no reruns.
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Kreutzberger originated the weekly program in 1962, airing on Canal 13 in Chile as Show Dominical ("Sunday's Show"). He had been inspired by television shows he had seen in the USA and Argentina but, as he explained, "My idea was mixing all the programs that I saw into one program."
The show was rescheduled to broadcast on Saturdays, and henceforth, named Sábados Gigantes in 1966 and quickly developed a loyal following in Chile, and then throughout Latin America. In Chile, during the 1970s and 1980s, the show reached peak audiences of 80%. During this period, some episodes of the program lasted up to eight hours.
In its early years, the series was broadcast live with the exception of short segments; notable among the pre-taped segments was the travelogue, where Kreutzberger visited different locations around the world.
On April 12, 1986 Kreutzberger and the program moved to Miami, Florida where Univision (formerly SIN) began producing it. At that time, the show's title was changed to the singular Sábado Gigante, although some long-time fans in Latin America still call it by the plural. On June 18, 2005 the series celebrated its 1,000th episode on Univisión, and on May 20, 2006 it celebrated its twentieth anniversary there.
For several years, two programs were recorded each week from identical sets:
One of the show's signature segments, six contestants are given the chance to sing a song, with the bad performers being eliminated mid-song by El Chacal, a ghostlike character who blows an old trumpet to end such acts (similar to The Gong Show). Unlike The Gong Show, el chacal does not have to wait a specific amount of time before eliminating someone (on many occasions, players have been eliminated almost immediately after beginning). The "surviving" performers are voted on by the audience, with the one receiving the most applause winning a prize or some cash.
A parody of beauty pageants, six women compete in swimsuits for the title of Miss Colita.
Throughout the show's run on Univision, a disclaimer said by either Don Francisco, Javier Romero or one of the co-presenters precedes the car games by stating: "Neither Sabado Gigante or Univision ask for money in exchange for prizes, if you receive a call asking for money in exchange for a prize [from someone claiming to be on behalf of Univision or Sabado Gigante], please call the corresponding authorities." while the same disclaimer is shown on-screen. A similar disclaimer is also used for the Chilean version of Gigante hosted by Don Francisco's daughter, Vivi.
Prior to the revamping in 2008, the games played for the car were similar to the pricing games seen on The Price is Right, but were based on luck rather than having the contestant guess the actual price of the car. They have included one with a staircase with buttons, with the contestant trying to avoid a "broken" button to win (this game was relaunched in 2005 with a man in a cherry picker, usually a stunt double, falling out of there if the broken button was pushed), one with 12 keys with the contestant must choose the key (with a set number of chances) that opens the large "vault" containing the car inside. In 1999, a relaunch of the game had all the finalists choose one key each and was expanded to 16 keys, whilst the 2006 relaunch returned to the old format, but with a makeover (it resembled a bank vault and the keys in-game were modeled after real keys) . This game was considered the most popular car game of the show. There are games similar to The Price is Right's "3 Strikes" pricing game, but gameplay varied depending on that game's concept.
In September 2009, comedian Adonis Losada, who played Doña Concha on the show, was arrested by the police and subsequently charged with 30 counts of possession of child pornography after detectives in Boynton Beach, Florida alleged he uploaded one of the images to a social-networking site. Police found 18 images of child pornography on a hard drive in his home.[2]
Following this, the Doña Concha character was scrapped from Sábado Gigante.
In 2010, following the Haiti earthquake, the show aired a special three-hour telethon benefiting the American Red Cross.