AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
The Guinness Book of World Records named it the longest running variety show on television. For 53 years, "Sabado Gigante" has been a staple for Latin viewers.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SABADO GIGANTE")
MARIO KREUTZBERGER: (Speaking Spanish).
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
"Sabado Gigante," which translates as giant Saturday, is a three-hour extravaganza. It's an old-fashioned variety show with contests, pranks and many scantily clad females. It will go off the air in September, and Saturday nights will become a little smaller. Leila Cobo is with Billboard Magazine.
LEILA COBO: Losing "Sabado Gigante" means losing a link that connected many generations of Latins.
SIEGEL: And the man who did the connecting is the show's host, Mario Kreutzberger. He's known on "Sabado Gigante" as Don Francisco.
COBO: Think of, like, your favorite uncle. Three, four generations that watched this man, and that's part of the appeal, you know, that the whole family could sit down and watch it - the grandfather, the parents and the kids.
CORNISH: Kreutzberger was a character. He was part talk show host, part ringleader. He started the show in his native Chile in 1962. It now airs in over 40 countries. In more than five decades, Don Francisco only took one night off when his mother died.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SABADO GIGANTE")
KREUTZBERGER: (Singing in Spanish).
SIEGEL: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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