Sábado Gigante to end

[David Lynch]

The story en español from Univision News. My quick translation of the first couple paragraphs below.

After 53 years on the air and almost 30 of them produced and broadcast in the United States, the popular program Sábado Gigante, hosted by Don Francisco, ends its successful run in September of this year. The entertainment division of Univision, the network which has presented the show since 1986 and which has brought it to more than 40 countries, announced that the final program of its run will be broadcast on the 19th of September, at the end of the 2014-2015 television season.

Sábado Gigante is the longest-running entertainment program in the history of global television. Since 2001, when the show had completed 40 seasons, the show has been in the Guinness Book of World Records. Curiously, the origin of the show was a Sunday show, broadcast in August 1962.

[Kevin M.]

Back in high school our Spanish teacher required us to watch a certain amount of Spanish TV. I'd almost always choose Sabado Gigante because it was just so insane and random. If the games ever had rules, I was never able to understand them. Just a couple hours of people having fun.

--
--
TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People!
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "TV or Not TV" group.
To post to this group, send email to tvor...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
tvornottv-...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Kevin M. (RPCV)

[djconner]

I found some English-language articles too.  Univision is being silent on the question of "Why?" but this article from the Miami Herald has some plausible theories:

http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/tv/article18753690.html

While ratings still seem to be strong, there's a general problem among American viewers (regardless of their native language) turning away from broadcast TV.  Another theory is that the bean-counters who now own Univision are on a cost-cutting campaign in advance of reselling the network.