Speaking volumes

On ABC's new comedy ''Freddie," the Puerto Rican grandmother only speaks Spanish to her family even though she understands English perfectly. Viewers know what she says thanks to the subtitles, a weekly feature on the show.

On NBC's ''Law and Order: SVU," Detective Olivia Benson uses her Spanish whenever she needs to interview a victim of or a witness to a sex crime who only speaks Spanish.

The same goes for the white-gloved wearing crew of ''CSI: Miami," or, last week, the FBI squad on ''Without a Trace." Subtitles let viewers follow along when a new agent, played by Roselyn Sanchez, interviewed a maid in Spanish. The episode itself was called ''Viuda Negra" -- in English, ''Black Widow."

Hablas español?

The answer this TV season is a loud ''Si!"

In a country where Hispanics have grown into the largest minority, so too has the amount of Spanish on prime-time television shows. We're not talking one-word exchanges of ''Hola" or ''por favor," but conversations in Spanish, with and without subtitles.

Programs such as ''CSI: Miami" or ''SVU" sometimes have the main characters speak Spanish because it adds an authentic touch to the shows' settings in Miami and New York City, areas with large Latino populations. On ABC's ''Invasion," actor Eddie Cibrian plays a Cuban park ranger who regularly taps his native Spanish to talk to fellow South Florida deputies and his bilingual children.

For sitcoms like ''The George Lopez Show" or ''Freddie," the added Spanish illustrates the challenges of living in a bicultural and bilingual household in the United States. These shows center on a nuclear Mexican-Cuban-American family in Los Angeles and an extended Puerto Rican family in Chicago.

Executive producers and advocates say having a bilingual actor is a bonus for the show and the viewers because that added skill helps cater to a growing audience of Hispanic Americans.

''More and more, the networks are beginning to understand to try and draw that audience. That is their future," says Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, an advocacy group that has been working to boost the presence of Hispanics on TV. After years of groups like his pushing for more racial diversity on prime-time TV, the actors these days aren't just looking like the rest of America but also sounding like it too, especially this season.

Of the new 43 scripted shows this season including premieres in early 2006, at least 32 will regularly feature Latino, African-American, and Asian-American actors. Anecdotally, some of the top shows this season have or will include some type of Spanish dialogue.

Upcoming episodes of ABC's ''Lost" will feature crash survivor Michelle Rodriguez, a Latina, speaking Spanish with Mexican-American character Hurley, played by Jorge Garcia. (The show broke ground last season when it featured a South Korean couple regularly conversing in their native language -- with subtitles.)

''You have Latinos figuring into prominent leading roles," Nogales says, noting Eva Longoria on ABC's ''Desperate Housewives" and most recently, Freddie Prinze Jr. ''The networks want to be able to capture that bilingual audience."

Of the newer crop of shows doing just that is ''Freddie." The main character, played by Prinze, is a swinging Chicago chef who takes in three generations of women, including his sister-in-law, his sister and niece, and his grandmother, played by Jenny Gago. Her role was inspired by his own Puerto Rican grandmother who would speak Spanish in her home even though she spoke English. It was an unspoken rule everyone abided by in his real family, Prinze says.

''That is a traditional Puerto Rican household," says Prinze, who was raised by his Italian mother in New Mexico after his father, the late Freddie Prinze of 1970s sitcom ''Chico and the Man," committed suicide when Freddie Jr. was 10 months old. Prinze would spend summers with his father's side of the family in Puerto Rico, where his grandmother lives. He draws from his experiences of growing up in a mostly female household with Puerto Rican roots for the show's story lines.

''People can speak to her in English all day but in her house, she spoke Spanish. I am just trying to portray a family and in this family, the grandmother speaks Spanish," he adds. ''That was my reality growing up."

So will the abuela character ever speak English on the show?

''No, never," says Prinze. The reaction to the show's Spanish infusion, called innovative by some TV observers, has been positive, especially out in public, Prinze says.

''From Spanish people I run into on the street, they have a lot of pride. One guy told me that is the only show that is on a regular network where we actually see a Spanish person speaking Spanish," he adds. ''We are trying to play it for real."

Last season on ''SVU," an episode involved a little Colombian boy who witnessed his family being gunned down in their New York apartment. The boy's character spoke Spanish when interviewed by an SVU detective played by guest star Nick Gonzalez. An episode last month called ''911" featured Detective Benson, played by Mariska Hargitay, speaking Spanish to calm a little Honduran girl who had been kidnapped and locked in a room. One scene showed Hargitay singing a Spanish nursery rhyme to the girl to keep her on the line.

''We try to make it like it may occur in real life," says Neal Baer, executive producer of ''SVU." ''Whenever it fits into the story, we try to use it. In New York City, there is a huge Puerto Rican population and a Dominican population. We try to reflect what goes on in the real world."

For the show's producers, having a multilingual actor like Hargitay also helps writers broaden her character. Chances are when a story line involves a Hispanic character, that dialogue or scene will most likely go to Hargitay or a guest actor.

''We draw on what our actors can do," Baer says, noting that another ''SVU" actor, B.D. Wong, used his Mandarin skills in an episode last season centered in Chinatown.

Hargitay, who speaks Spanish, Italian, and Hungarian, ''is pretty amazing at what she does and that is why you see it. It doesn't seem hokey or fake because she does speak Spanish," Baer says.

Producers say incorporating a few Spanish lines into an episode without the help of subtitles most likely wouldn't confuse an audience of English speakers. Other characters will either talk about what was said in English or the Spanish is simple enough to follow.

''It gives a nod to our Spanish speakers without using the subtitles, which takes you out of the story," says Elizabeth Devine, co-executive producer of ''CSI: Miami," which has regularly featured characters speaking Spanish since it spun off from the original ''CSI" in fall 2002. Of the three ''CSI" series, the Miami incarnation is the one that peppers as much Spanish as it can, says Devine.

It also helps that two of the ''CSI" cast members, Adam Rodriguez and Emily Procter, are bilingual.

''One of the fun things about Miami is that everywhere you go, you hear Spanish. We try to incorporate it as we see fit," Devine says. ''We try to make it seem like a natural part of the culture."

The same goes for ABC's ''Invasion," which is set in Homestead, Fla., after a hurricane strikes the area and brings clusters of mysterious underwater lights that affect some of the residents.

Cibrian, who plays the local park ranger, ''flows in and out of Spanish and English," on the show because his character is Cuban, says executive producer Shaun Cassidy.

''His character came from Cuba in the Mariel boat lift in 1980," Cassidy says of Cibrian, who speaks Spanish, and will continue to do so in upcoming episodes. One features him detailing his back story of when he arrived in America and his relationship with his uncle.

''He does it when the circumstances call for it," says Cassidy, who has not used subtitles on the show. ''He's done it in four [episodes] already. Hopefully, the people who don't speak Spanish get the intent of the scene. We have people in the scenes saying 'What's going on?' so you have the audience represented there."

Prinze, who is a creator, writer, star, and executive producer of ''Freddie," is already planning for more Spanish in future episodes of his freshman sitcom. An upcoming show introduces actor Esai Morales as Freddie's father. They chase after the same woman and then argue about her in Spanish.

Here, according to Prinze, the introduction of their native language means trouble.

''Oh you are done," Freddie's onscreen buddy warns him. ''He broke out the Spanish."

Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com.