Many years ago, an old Frank Sinatra tune lamented that “Saturday night is the loneliest night of the week.” At the time, it was a reference to those poor souls without a date. Now, it could serve as a metaphor to describe what has happened to American prime time television over the past few decades.

Ironically, the neglect of Saturdays began with the early days of television. In the fall of 1947, none of the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and DuMont) offered any programmes on Saturday nights from 7:00 PM until 11:00 PM. (Local stations either aired their own shows or went dark.) A year later, DuMont still had no Saturday show, but you could find basketball games on the other networks. ABC also offered a pair of non-sports series called “Play The Game” and “Film Shorts.” NBC had the offerings “Television Screen Magazine” and “Saturday Night Jamboree.”

By the fall of 1949, things were changing. Television network executives soon learned a growing number of people were opting to stay home with the tube on a Saturday night instead of leaving the house–bad news for the nation’s movie theatres which saw attendance fall in the early days of TV. The networks were catching on, however. The fall of ‘49 had DuMont’s “Cavalcade of Stars” (which would eventually be a showcase for the talented Jackie Gleason) and “Wrestling from Chicago.” ABC countered with “Paul Whiteman’s TV Teen Club” and “Roller Derby.” CBS had something called “Premiere Playhouse,” and NBC offered a full line-up of shows that included “Twenty Questions,” “Stud’s Place” and “Meet The Press.” The relative success of “Cavalcade” did not go unnoticed; NBC stepped in with the classic “Your Show of Shows” with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in 1950; CBS aired “The Frank Sinatra Show;” and DuMont moved “Cavalcade” to another night in favour of more wrestling and a music show entitled “Country Style.”

Throughout the1950's, Saturday nights became a battleground for viewers, with CBS offering such fare as “The Jackie Gleason Show;” “The Honeymooners;” “Gunsmoke;” “Have Gun Will Travel” and “Perry Mason.” (“Gunsmoke” was America’s top-rated series from 1957 through 1961, proving that large numbers of viewers were willing to stay home on Saturdays.) NBC offerings of the decade on Saturdays included “Your Hit Parade;” “The Perry Como Show” and “Bonanza.” DuMont was gone by 1955, but ABC, then the weakest of the networks, did make some headway with bandleader Lawrence Welk. ABC also had a prime-time showcase for “American Bandstand” host Dick Clark, and aired “Leave It To Beaver” when it picked up the sitcom from CBS.

The 1960's also saw its share of hit Saturday programmes. “The Defenders;” “Jackie Gleason;” “Gilligan’s Island;” “Mission: Impossible” and “Hogan’s Heroes” thrived on CBS. NBC had its own string of hits in the 60's, starting with the first truly successful showcase for theatrical films, “Saturday Night At The Movies.” NBC also had such varied fare as “Flipper;” “Get Smart;” “The Andy Williams Show” and “Adam 12.” Over at ABC, “Lawrence Welk” was the anchor of the evening, surrounded by the variety shows “Hootnanny” and “The Hollywood Palace.” It also found success with night time versions of its popular daytime game shows, “The Dating Game” and “The Newlywed Game”–cheap to produce and able to draw younger viewers.

The 1970's proved to be the watershed decade for Saturday night prime time. For the first half of the decade, CBS had the most popular line-up, anchored by “All In The Family,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Carol Burnett Show.” In fact, the 1973-74 CBS Saturday line-up was one for the ages: “Family;” “M*A*S*H;” “Mary Tyler Moore;” “The Bob Newhart Show”and “Carol Burnett.” Truly an embarrassment of riches that kept CBS at the top for the first half of the ‘70's. NBC found some success with the paramedic drama “Emergency” and its venerable movie night. ABC’s Saturday night line-up was mostly a hodgepodge of low-rated series for much of the decade. But things began to jell in the fall of 1977 with “The Love Boat” and its partner a year later, “Fantasy Island.” They allowed ABC to take the Saturday crown from CBS. NBC ended its movie night in 1978, with the police drama “CHiPS” as its only success during the last few years of the decade.

As the 1980's began, new technology began to change American viewing habits. The rise of the videocassette recorder and theatrical films on video lured more people to sit in front of the television set every Saturday night. Cable was making inroads; HBO, Showtime and other channels were offering relatively new Hollywood films, uncut and uncensored. Already considered “date night,” Saturday night viewing on the networks slid even more in the ‘80's. And advertisers who wanted to promote the latest theatrical releases or pitch products to younger viewers stopped buying time on Saturdays; Thursday nights soon became the new nirvana to catch the 18 to 49 crowd before they set their plans for the weekend. But NBC got its second wind in 1985 with the premiere of the wildly successful sitcom “The Golden Girls.” It brought viewers back to Saturday nights, and helped boost surrounding programmes as “227;” “Empty Next;” “Amen” and “Hunter.” ABC tried a string of dramas after “The Love Boat” went off the air; they didn’t work. CBS also had problems during the last half of the 80's with comedies and drama; both turned to movie nights as a last ditch effort.

In the early 1990's, viewership continued to fall on Saturdays; the new Fox network also became a player with mostly “non-fiction” (reality) programmes that were cheap to produce. CBS was the last network to mount a truly successful series line-up with “Dr. Quinn” and “Walker: Texas Ranger.” They drew older viewers, but then, they were now the core audience on Saturdays. NBC’s comedy line-up lost steam by the mid 1990's; its final effort came with a trio of paranormal and science fiction dramas inspired by the success of Fox’s “The X-Files.” But “Dark Skies;” “The Pretender” and “Profiler” were marginal hits at best (“Profiler” lasted the longest). ABC mostly gave up on original series and aired movies and family-oriented films (mostly from its Disney parent).

By the start of the new century, the networks were starting to abandon original, scripted programming on Saturday nights. It was just too expensive to produce new dramas and sitcoms for a night that was seeing fewer and fewer viewers every year. Fox has stuck with its reality line-up of “Cops” and “America’s Most Wanted” for more than a decade, and it has paid off with relatively younger viewers, while still turning a profit. The other networks weren’t so lucky.

In the fall of 1999, ABC threw out original scripted programming for three hours of movies it called the “Big Picture Show.” One year later, NBC followed suit with a three-hour movie block. CBS, the last of the major networks to offer scripted series in prime time, finally succumbed to the trend in the fall of 2004, when it offered repeats of “CSI” and “Without A Trace” for an hour (or sometimes two) in what was billed as “Crimetime Saturday.” It followed with the cheap reality show “Candid Camera” and the news magazine “48 Hours Mystery” (which focused on real-life crime cases). Also this season, ABC began airing repeats of “Desperate Housewives.” In 2005, NBC began repeating some of its dramas (especially the “Law & Order” series) in addition to movies. A year later, ABC chucked movies in favor of college football and NBC devoted one hour of Saturdays to its news magazine “Dateline;” the other two hours were repeats of various NBC series (including comedies such as “My Name Is Earl” and “The Office”).

Today, there are virtually no original programmes on Saturday nights on any of the broadcast networks (with the exception of the Fox reality shows and the occasional news magazine.) Even the CW network does not air series on Saturdays, allowing its affiliated stations to plug in everything from reruns to old films. To get original Saturday programmes on broadcast TV, you have to wait until after 11:00 for NBC’s venerable “Saturday Night Live” or its competition, “MAD TV” on Fox.

But for years, there has been one example of popular Saturday night entertainment on prime time–at least for Spanish speaking viewers. Univision, the largest Spanish broadcasting network in the United States, airs a programme called “Sabado Gigante” (“Big Saturday”). Part variety show, part game show and part interview show, it has been hosted by a man named Don Francisco since 1962 (when it began as a programme in Chile known as “Show Domingal,” or “Sunday’s Show”). It’s three hours long (sometimes longer) and has been broadcast from Miami, Florida since 1986. It has been a major hit among Hispanics; demand for commercials and product placements have also made “Sabado Gigante” a cash cow for Univision. It’s a model that the English-language networks could use, but so far, none have been willing to do so. Maybe a little out of the box thinking could rescue Saturday from its lonely status–and encourage more viewers to stay home (or at least set the recorder). It happened before; there’s no reason it couldn’t happen again.