Sábado Gigante (English translation: "Giant Saturday" or "Gigantic Saturday"; known officially as Sábado Gigante Internacional outside Chile) is a Spanish-language television program broadcast by Spanish International Network in the United States. It was also Univision's longest-running program and the longest-running television variety series in world television history. Sábado Gigante was an eclectic and frenetic mix of various contests, human-interest stories, and live entertainment. From its start in 1962, it was hosted by Chilean TV star 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.
For the first time during the show's run, the final episode aired live in Chile, Mexico, and the U.S. After the finale, Univision replaced it with a prerecorded Mexican show, Sabadazo, which premiered on October 30, 2010, on Televisa and September 2012 on Univision. It was later replaced with Crónicas de Sábado and Sal y Pimienta on Univision as Sabadazo was moved back to its original afternoon time slot (both shows were later replaced by 2-3 Liga MX association football games broadcast on the network under the name Sábado Futbolero broadcast during that league's season; Sabadazo was then canceled in 2015).
Broadcast history
[[File:Show Dominical ad.jpg|thumb|left|The first advertisement of ''Sabado Gigantes first episode as Show Dominical]] Kreutzberger originated the weekly program on August 5, 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 United States and Argentina but, as he explained, "My idea was mixing all the programs that I saw into one program."
The program's broadcasts were subsequently moved to Saturdays, and henceforth, was renamed Sábados Gigantes in 1963 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, FL where it began to be produced by the Spanish International Network, now Univision (originally by their Miami affiliate, WLTV). At that time, the show's title was changed to the singular Sábado Gigante, although some longtime fans in Chile still call it by the pluralized title. On June 18, 2005, the series celebrated its 1,000th episode on Univisión, and on May 20, 2006, it celebrated its 20th anniversary in the U.S. and on May 21, 2011, it celebrated its 25th anniversary on the Univision. On October 27, 2012, Sábado Gigante celebrated its 50th anniversary (counting both its runs in Chile and the U.S.).
For the Univision program, from its inception until 2001, the broadcast began at 7:00pm ET, with the “first hour” (from 1996-2001) usually revolving around a theme and marketed under an alternate name (e.g. Amor Gigante, Sorpresa Gigante, Tutti Frutti Gigante, Fiesta Gigante among others). This first hour was exclusive to Univision and was not used in international broadcasts.