Late last year, I got the opportunity to do research on one of the most celebrated – but now endangered – social rituals: breakfast. My client was a food company that was concerned about the larger social trends affecting its category. As we concluded in our final report, concerns about the quality of the category were important. But just as important, brands that depend on the ritual of the s0-called American breakfast – where the whole family sits down at the same time and eats the same things – may be in serious trouble, unless they are ready to innovate in a big way.
I’ve been thinking about breakfast a lot these past 24 hours. And not because it’s my favorite meal (it is), or because I can’t find anyone to have it with me (I can — kind of — on most days, but’s it’s hard). It’s because we all now have the opportunity to reflect on the demise of another ritual that brands for decades have relied upon: the Hispanic family get-together on Saturday nights.
If you are not Hispanic, understand this: Hispanics are infamous for being the most brand loyal of all US citizens. At least that’s our reputation among marketers. But it’s perhaps the reason that Sabado Gigante is the longest-running variety in TV history. For if you have ever watched Sabado Gigante you will have noticed how friendly it is to the brands that support it. The audiences are instructed to sing along to the sponsors’ jingles.
Earlier this week, Univision announced that Sabado Gigante will air its last show on September 19, the last day of its TV season. It gave no explanation. So of course many people like me are guessing why, exactly.
Challenges gigante
Despite the reaction on social media, no one should have been at all surprised. First, there are the ratings. In recent years, the audience has slipped. In 2012, it had an average of 2.9 mm viewers. Today it has 2 mm. That’s a 33% drop. And then there’s the view that Univision has on the viewers themselves. Of the 2 mm today, less than 25% are between the ages 18-34. Univision may be seriously worried about millennials, which for the first time in history outnumber boomers.
But there were other challenges. Over the years, Sabado Gigante has weathered a withering number of complaints. It exploits women (scantily-clad ladies were a staple). It has a frenetic/uneven pace, and goes on for three hours. Don Francisco, the creator and host, has been criticized for ”accommodating” the government of Augusto Pinochet, the dictator of Chile where the show originated and was produced before Univision brought it to Miami in 1986. The charge may be unfair; the host repeatedly has said he survived in Chile in part by claiming neutrality, regardless of who was in power. But it’s reminiscent ofthe new Pope’s early struggles with his own storyline when he was a Cardinal in Argentina. The price of success during Latin American dictatorships may be suspicion, regardless of guilt.
But alas, poor taste, production values, politics — none of these would stop Sabado Gigante for more than half a century. In the end, only one thing could end it: the decline of Saturday night as a US Hispanic family ritual where Spanish TV plays a major role.
Sabado Gigante, of course, can be viewed alone or in groups. Still, as a variety show – with something for everyone – it’s best watched in the company of others. That’s true even if the company does not particularly like the show. They can watch it to make fun of it. But this is also true: there’s not much chance that any group will be watching it unless that group happens to be an Hispanic family where at least someone prefers to speak Spanish, and no one else minds very much. And the fact is, those types of groups may not be coming together as much on Saturday nights. I grew up in one of those groups (my extended family), and I have witnessed the changes myself.
The US Hispanic population, as studies show, is not growing as fast through immigration as from other natural causes (e.g., rising birth rates). But it’s immigrant families that helped grow an audience for Sabado Gigante in the US. The long term trend does not look good for Spanish-language programming of this kind. Spanish-preferring adults in the US will struggle to get millennials to watch TV with them. Chances are the millennials don’t even know Spanish. And there may be other things competing for the attention of Spanish-preferring on a Saturday night. These days, even abuelas (grandmas) have iPads. I know several who do.
Shabbat Gigante
So what’s a media company like Univision to do? Give up on family ritual, or go another route entirely as it adjusts to the new demographics? Not sure what they are thinking, but I would not give up on ritual, or even Saturday night. Univision might just need to think of another ritual – offline or online, on other devices – that bring people together, again. In the meantime, I was intrigued to learn — during research for this post — that Sabado Gigante’s Don Francisco, whose real name is Mario Kreutzberger, is the son of German-Jewish immigrants to Chile who escaped Nazi Germany.
In other words, the man who perhaps has brought more people together on Saturday night than anyone in history (except for, OK, Lorne Michaels) comes from the people who gave us the Sabbath. Getting together at the end of the week is a ritual that has lasted thousands of years. I doubt that even millennials can make it go away. The only challenge will be finding the right way to bring us together. But that, my friends, is what innovation is all about.
