Sábado Gigante
| Sábado Gigante | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Show Dominical (1962–1963 Chile) Sábados Gigantes (1963–1992 Chile) Sábado Gigante (1986-2015 U.S.) |
| Created by | Don Francisco |
| Presented by | Don Francisco Rolando Barral (1986-1988) Pedro De Pool (1988–1991) Javier Romero (1991–2015) |
| Country of origin | Chile (1962–1992) United States (1986–2015) |
| Original language | Spanish |
| No. of seasons | 53 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | Approx. 2 hours, 15 minutes (without commercials) 3 hours (with commercials) 4 hours (1986-2001, with commercials) |
| Original release | |
| Network | Canal 13 |
| Release | August 5, 1962 – 1992 |
| Network | SIN |
| Release | April 12, 1986 – 1988 |
| Network | Univision Las Estrellas |
| Release | 1988 – September 19, 2015 |
| Related | |
| Siempre Niños | |
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Sábado Gigante (English translation: "Giant Saturday" or "Gigantic Saturday"; known officially as Sábado Gigante Internacional outside Chile) is a Spanish-language television variety show. It originated from Chile in 1962, where it was broadcast on Canal 13. Beginning in 1986, it was broadcast in the United States by Spanish International Network (SIN), later renamed Univisión. It was Univision's longest-running program and the longest-running television variety series in world television history. Sábado Gigante is an eclectic and frenetic mix of various contests, human-interest stories, and live entertainment. Throughout its run, the show was hosted by Mario Kreutzberger under the stage name of Don Francisco. Rolando Barral and Pedro De Pool began serving as a co-hosts in 1986; that role was taken over by Javier Romero in 1991.
The three-hour program aired on Univision each Saturday at 8:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. from 1987 to 2001). A new episode was produced every week throughout the show's history, with no reruns and only rare preemptions due to special programming (most notably by Teletón USA, an annual 24-hour telethon held each December, which Kreutzberger has hosted since its inception in 2012).
On April 17, 2015, Univision announced that Sábado Gigante would end after 53 years, with its final episode (titled Sábado Gigante: Hasta Siempre; English translation: "Giant Saturday: Farewell" or "Gigantic Saturday: Farewell") airing on September 19, 2015. Present at the show were former members of "Clan Infantil" and the current host of the Univision magazine "Primer Impacto" Pamela Silva Conde, the soap opera actress Sherlyn, the Univision Radio host José Felipe Padrón, "Primer Impacto" correspondent Tony Dandrades, actor and singer Eduardo Antonio, the Venezuelan singer Karolina con K and Zuleyka Rivera, Miss Universe 2006 and current presenter of the UniMás program "La Revista de Zuleyka", among others.
The final episode was broadcast live simultaneously in Chile, Mexico, and the U.S.