Senor Abravanel (Hebrew: סניור אברבנאל;[1] 12 December 1930 – 17 August 2024), known professionally as Silvio Santos, was a Brazilian television presenter and business magnate.

Santos married for the second time to Íris Abravanel in 1981, with whom he remained until the end of his life and had four other daughters, Daniela, Patricia, Rebeca and Renata.

[16] Abravanel attended primary school at the Escola Municipal Celestino da Silva, and graduated from Colégio Estadual Amaro Cavalcanti.

Seeing an opportunity in adding entertainment for passengers, he began a business venture of bringing a PA system aboard the ferry to play music and commercials.

After the ferry company added bars to the ships, Santos spearheaded raffle promotions where passengers could receive a ticket by buying a beverage.

[16] One of the advertisers Santos would work with at the station was Manuel de Nóbrega, entertainer and co-owner of Baú da Felicidade—a company that offered Christmas toy chests that customers could pay for in installments throughout the year.

[16] In 1960, TV Paulista signed Santos to host a television program—Vamos Brincar de Forca—which would incorporate variety entertainment and raffles, and be used to promote Baú da Felicidade.

[16] In the early-1970s, Rede Globo began to shift its programming strategy in order to help improve viewership, with a stronger focus on telenovelas, news, sports, and films.

His victory in São Paulo was criticized by a local broadcasters' union, who lamented TVS's programming as "canned goods", and felt that Santos only wanted to sell more Baú da Felicidade cards.

[16] By the late-1980s, SBT became more established, acquiring popular film rights,[28] and signing names such as Hebe Camargo, Carlos Alberto de Nóbrega, and Jô Soares.

[29] In January 1988, Santos traveled to Boston to undergo medical treatment for vocal cord issues that had caused him to lose his voice, and a tumor on one of his eyelids, which was found to be benign.

As his spouse Maria Aparecida Vieira had died from cancer in 1977, the 57 year-old Santos had introspections between himself and his colleagues regarding his health and future, leading him to begin the process of naming a successor.

Santos would give Gugu a larger salary, and prominent hosting roles in SBT's Sunday lineup (which would later include his own variety show, Domingo Legal).

[36][37] Amid financial issues at the broadcaster, agreements were reached to sell Rede Record to Edir Macedo, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

Adapted from the American series Anything for Money,[39] the show would introduce a trademark of Santos throwing paper planes made from banknotes into the studio audience as prizes (a practice that, at one point, drew the ire of the Central Bank of Brazil), and the accompanying catchphrase "Quem quer dinheiro?"

[41][42] On 28 August 2001, Santos was held hostage in his mansion by Fernando Dutra Pinto, a suspect in the then-recent kidnapping of his daughter Patricia Abravanel.

After holding the presenter captive for eight hours, Fernando was later detained by police, and Santos was released, joined by Governor of São Paulo Geraldo Alckmin.

Its similarities to Big Brother led to Globo (who held local rights to the franchise, but had not yet made any plans to produce a Brazilian version)[44][45] briefly reaching an injunction to halt its broadcast, but Casa would later return to air.

[53] In April 2022, Santos returned to the program for the first time in eight months, marked by an appearance as a surprise opponent for Ratinho in the show's "Jogo das Três Pistas" game.

[58] Due to his extremely charismatic personality, Santos was one of the most influential and beloved people in Brazil, and was considered to be a "timeless" figure of Brazilian entertainment.