Silvio Santos slowly retired his field team and became a luxury guest on his own show. After not recording for over a month, he passes the baton of his Sunday without a fuss to daughter number four, Patrícia Abravanel. In this way, Homem do Baú does what he wanted to do in the 90s, but with Gugu Liberato (19592019).
On the SBT Videos platform, where the channel makes available part of its current and past collection, the main photo of Silvio Santos’ show already shows an image of the communicator next to Patrícia, which signals and even makes official once and for all that she it is sharing the stage with her father or vice versa.
At the peak of his 91 years, Silvio could not even imagine 60 running programs. He introduced his student Gugu on Sundays in 1988 after removing him from Globo. “In this season of 88 I will do five hours and Gugu will do four. In the season of 89 I will be 59 years old, I will be three and Gugu will be six. Half of Baú and Gugu will do the rest. In 91, when I turn 61 I’ll do Miss Brazil, Press Trophy and some shows to satisfy my TV man’s vanity,” he warned on a historic freshman show 34 years ago.
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However, the story was very different. Silvio didn’t leave the video and didn’t start commanding only specials like he imagined, but in fact he even gave Gugu Liberato five hours on Sundays. The situation only really changed with the arrival of the Covid19 pandemic. With the health crisis, his presence became a rarity and although he rehearsed a few rounds, he was never able to resume the recording routine he maintained through 2019.
Patrícia Abravanel became the natural successor to Silvio Santos at SBT
With the change from Gugu to Record in 2009, Silvio, who had already returned for good on Sundays with a duration of five hours, became even more firmly established as an important pillar of the program. On the eve of his 80th birthday, Homem do Baú once again ordered Sundays to do what he always did: hand out prizes, pull pranks, do scavenger hunts and make dreams come true.
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As a sales and audience champion, the Silvio Santos program has saved its essence and embarked on a trajectory that would last for more than a decade. Without having any serious health problems, Silvio maintained his routine on the premises of the CDT (Centro de Televisão), linked to important decisions within the station. He continues to do so.
But with the onset of the pandemic, he had to take his team off the field. As part of the risk group, like all television stations, he left television and only returned about a year and a half after the last appearance on stage. Despite being vaccinated, he contracted the virus that killed more than 680,000 people in Brazil and was hospitalized after trying to rehearse a ride.
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The Silvio Santos program, which chose to repeat classics during the pandemic, found itself with no way out in the face of the dizzying drop in viewership and the absence of its commander. Patrícia Abravanel was first cast to present the September 2021 attraction and has been in the role for almost a year.
Silvio Santos became a rarity when he mastered his program
With his daughter taking care of the job and cultivating a respectable audience, Silvio saw no problem in taking things forward at the pace he wanted. With no dependence on his character on the air, he records when he can or when he feels like it either to satisfy his “entertainer ego,” as he put it on The Calouros Show in 1988, or because he that actually looks this is still an important fuel for its existence.
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The last Silvio Santos program with the “incumbent” took place on June 26th. This month the Sunday premiere of the new scenario that Silvio himself has not yet seen up close.
In Ibope, the July average is 7.4 points in the Greater SP. The record in 2022 was set on May 1st in one of Silvio Santos’ stage laps during this pandemic period: he gave 8.7. In the last edition with him he gave 7.6, not much different than when daughter number four “touches the boat”.
For the next few weeks, no one knows when Silvio will decide to record. And will be back. As always, that remains a question mark and subject to change at any time, but the entrepreneur’s transition in the video has never been given as much body as it is right now.
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