There are many explanations why ABC, for example, has Hispanics in so many prominent roles in so many of its series of late, from Eva Longoria's Gabrielle on "Desperate Housewives" and Jorge Garcia's Hurley on "Lost" to Sofia Vergara's Lola on "Hot Properties" and Freddie Prinze Jr.'s title character on "Freddie."

Not the least of those reasons, however, is that dinero talks.

"The genesis is good business," said Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment. "We're a broadcast network, and you look at the multicultural nature of this country these days and I think you would be making a big mistake as a broadcaster to not recognize that and program for it."

With the fight for viewers ever-more competitive, thanks to the growing number of entertainment options, ABC has identified U.S. Hispanics, a population more than 40 million strong, as a target of opportunity, even if almost half their number watch mainly Spanish-language TV. . . .

Beyond giving better roles to Latin performers and airing a pair of sitcoms centering on Hispanic families--"George Lopez" and "Freddie," which has one character who speaks only Spanish--ABC this fall became the first English-language broadcast network to make its entire regular prime-time lineup available in Spanish through secondary audio program (SAP) dubbing and closed caption subtitles.

Fox is said to enjoy an advantage of more than 80,000 Hispanic viewers over ABC overall, but ABC is tightening the race and doing particularly well with Hispanics between the ages of 18 and 49. Among that advertiser-coveted demographic, ABC has the top six shows this season. . . .