Domingão do Faustão

History

The show premiered on March 26, 1989, on Rede Globo, at 4:00pm, presented by Fausto Silva, who had been hired after his good performance in Perdidos na Noite. The main objective of the program was ambitious: surpass the audience numbers of the Programa Silvio Santos (SBT). The program followed a style: live music performances, dancers, and interviews with several popular artists from Brazil. Quickly, Globo saw its audience grow and subsequently exceed the numbers of Silvio Santos.

The audience of the program remained stable until Domingo Legal, presented by Augusto Liberato (popularly known as 'Gugu'), began to perform well, and reached the leadership spot in October 1997. Subsequently, both programs represented 60% of the share, monopolizing the audience of Brazilian television on Sunday.

This dispute over leadership extended until the decade of 2000. However, Fausto Silva saw his program becoming favored after the rival program began losing popularity due to a scandal involving Gugu and the criminal faction PCC.

In 2008, Domingão celebrated the thousandth program, a fact that was highlighted by Veja magazine in a special edition. In addition to the celebrations, Fausto was congratulated by some personalities, including then president Lula. In 2009, the program celebrated its 20-year mark on the air, without interruption, promoting the edition Melhores do Ano de 2008 (which was intentionally delayed). In December of that year, the resignation of some members of the cast and production was announced. Among them, Adriana Colin (merchandising), Caçulinha(literally little young brother - musical director)and Lucimara Parisi (director).

Dança dos Famosos

The show pairs a number of celebrities with professional ballroom dancers who each week compete against each other in a competition to impress a panel of judges and the viewing audience in order to survive potential elimination.

Melhores do Ano

Melhores do Ano is an event promoted by the program to reward the best artists of the year.

Ratings

Domingão debuted with a central objective: to surpass the audience of the popular Programa Silvio Santos (SBT). According to IBOPE, some affiliated stations SBT recorded 60 rating points during program airing, an easy win for Globo. Soon after the premiere, Domingão, broadcast during prime time on Sunday, between 4:00 pm and 19:00 pm, scored 36 points average, compared to 20 for Silvio Santos in São Paulo. In Rio de Janeiro, it was 36 points for 'Domingão' versus 16 points for TV Manchete.

The program remained leader for 8 consecutive years (which made the media call Fausto the King of Sundays), until the SBT launched Domingo Legal, a similar program presented by Augusto Liberato, who quickly became popular and took over the leadership of IBOPE ratings. The loss of ratings forced Fausto and his production team to appeal to alternatives, such as the controversial segment Sushi Erótico (Erotic Sushi). However, the program still lost more audience and popularity, and Domingo Legal continued to grow. However, some years later, the rival program would lose popularity, after displaying a false report in which alleged members of the PCC threatened the death of some of Brazil's media personalities. Later, Fausto again lead the IBOPE Ratings.

Fausto continued to lead the public by the end of the 2000s (even considering the boom of Rede TV! which did not affect Domingão directly). However, in 2010, Fausto returned to facing problems with the audience. Gugu, who moved to TV Record a year earlier, began broadcasting its program in the new station simultaneously, and performed well in the ratings, and beat Fausto several times.

In 2011, Domingão recorded its worst audience: 10 points on average, according to IBOPE Media Information. At some times of the day, Fausto came in third place, surpassed by Gugu (Record) and Eliana (SBT).