Don Francisco, the veteran talk-show host who dazzled millions of Spanish-speaking viewers with his Saturday-night program “Sábado Gigante” on Univision, will return to the network.
The host, whose program was canceled in 2015 after a run of more than half a century, will host a new limited-run interview series featuring “major personalities from the Hispanic world,” the network said Tuesday during a presentation to advertisers as part of the industry’s annual “upfront” market. The format is expected to feature intimate, close conversations that will be heighted because Francisco’s program is not a regular part of the Univision schedule.
The show represents a homecoming of sorts, and would be the equivalent of NBC tapping Johnny Carson to host one-one-one conversations with notables following the end of his tenure on “The Tonight Show:” in 1992.
Francisco, whose real name is Mario Kreutzberger, has not been a regular part of the Univision schedule since “Sábado Gigante” ended in 2015. The three-hour-plus program regularly featured contests, comedy segments, roundtables with children, and even travelogues, and aired for 53 years, starting in 1962. It reached the U.S. in 1986. Its popularity was so great — at one time, Univision would boast that the series reached 80 million viewers each week in over 20 countries — that its final episode aired simultaneously in Chile, Mexico, and the United States.
Following the show’s demise, Francisco moved to Spanish-language rival Telemundo, owned by NBCUniversal, where he hosted 100 episodes of a Sunday-night talk show that ended in 2018.
“Sábado Gigante” was known for its willingness to weave advertising into its format, with segments often sponsored by products ranging from Coca-Cola and Sprite to Cap’n Crunch and Allstate.
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