Cristina: More Than Sally With an Accent?

Just what we need--another TV talk show.

Right?

Well, maybe. Just maybe.

It all depends on the direction that “Cristina,” KCBS-TV Channel 2’s new daily series, takes with its unique opportunity in the Los Angeles market.

Cristina Saralegui, a Cuban-born, Miami-based personality already known to viewers of Spanish-language KMEX-TV Channel 34, is no Oprah. She’s no Donahue. She’s no Sally Jessy. And she’s no Geraldo.

But she has something that none of them has--a Latino accent. And that signifies the changing texture of this increasingly multicultural city as her daily, syndicated, 9-10 a.m. series enters the competition of L.A.’s biggest commercial TV stations.

Will “Cristina” follow the path of its promising Monday debut, which dealt with matchmakers who put together Latin American, Asian and other foreign women with prospective husbands in the United States?

Or will the series tend toward more usual talk-show subjects such as Tuesday’s broadcast about gay teens, offering programs in the Oprah-Phil mold but only occasionally changing the pace with a slight Latino and multiethnic twist?

A warning that “Cristina” could be heading off-track came Wednesday when the third show offered a disastrously shallow outing about comedians who are romantically involved with each other.

The potential of the series is that a new talk-show direction, drawing strongly on the changing face of America’s major cities, could be a welcome addition on a traditional station such as KCBS. We really don’t need another Sally Jessy.

It’s understandable, of course, that “Cristina” might not want to be pigeonholed and categorized any more than an actor wants to be typecast.

It’s also understandable that the host, despite her Latin roots and fame in the Spanish-speaking media, might just want to do the subjects that everybody else does, be judged only on her ability and not be boxed in by cultural demands.

But “Cristina” has a real opportunity to stand apart and fill a need on TV.

The star has the clout to draw viewers. And if the series has a really significant angle, she likewise might attract those who don’t watch TV’s usual freakazoid talk shows.

Nielsen ratings for Monday, while perhaps inflated by curiosity and publicity, showed “Cristina” beating KNBC-TV Channel 4’s Phil Donahue but losing to KABC-TV Channel 7’s Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford. In Arbitron ratings, “Cristina” defeated both shows.

Tuesday’s program about gay teens, however, fell off sharply in the ratings. Although “Cristina” still edged out Donahue, it was walloped by Regis and Kathie Lee in Nielsen statistics. And the news was worse from Arbitron, which showed “Cristina” losing to both competitors.

In on-camera style, Saralegui probably comes closest to Sally Jessy Raphael, who has perfected the art of remaining low-key and very proper while presenting the most outrageous topics on her series. Sally Jessy can be quite a hoot.

Saralegui, 44, is an obviously well-read person with a pleasantly deep, warm voice and a witty, slightly skeptical and worldly attitude. Her conservative, proper clothes go very well with her striking blond hair and handsome look.

She does not dominate her show or audience in an aggressive manner, the way that Donahue, Oprah and Geraldo do. Thus far, at least, she takes the quiet way, knifing in subtly at times with sly remarks that let you know just where she stands.

On the premiere, which included several matchmakers and two prospective brides from Mexico and Colombia, a couple of American men said they were looking for spouses who were more traditional and less money-oriented than women in the United States. When one of the men said, “I want someone to grow old with,” Saralegui weighed in:

“No, you don’t,” she said. “You want someone who makes you feel younger.”

Speaking of Latin American women, one of the men said: “Their man is their world.”

Saralegui, who formerly was editor-in-chief of a Spanish-language version of Cosmopolitan magazine, replied: “Have you been there lately?”

Deftly guiding her guests and audience, Saralegui -- and let’s just call her Cristina from now on because first names seem appropriate to this art, as in Geraldo and Oprah--moved things along in a firmly controlled but light-handed manner.

A male matchmaker in the audience said that American men seem to be attracted to women with foreign accents. In jumped Cristina again: “If you want an accent, I cost double.”

Meanwhile, a skeptical woman matchmaker in the audience told the wife-seeking men onstage: “I think you all are living in a fantasy.”

But one of the best moments of the hour came when a matchmaker guest from El Paso, Tex., wearing a cowboy hat, commented on prospective spouses who don’t speak the same language: “For 17 years, I was married to an American woman who spoke perfect English, and I never did understand her.”

He’s now married to a young Mexican woman who came up onstage, and they kissed and embraced.

Amid all the back and forth during the show, Cristina’s look at this old subject somehow connected to the new social developments that are emerging more and more in the contemporary melting pots of such cities as Los Angeles. An Asian-American woman matchmaker was a particularly fascinating guest.

With every talk show searching for fresh material, it’s difficult to imagine there’s a subject--including the one that “Cristina” chose for its debut--that hasn’t been treated on some series, somewhere, before.

But “Cristina” must have been thinking about its image--its promise of possible things to come--when it aired a provocative premiere with a strong multicultural focus.

Thus, the second program on Tuesday, about gay teens--while dealing with a subject of great interest--suddenly seemed more like our other talk shows when Cristina opened the broadcast with the line: “What do you do when your son or daughter comes to you and says to you, ‘I’m gay’?”

Instinctively, one thought that this could just as well be an hour of Oprah or Sally Jessy or any of the rest.

There were the usual guests--the young gays, parents, a sex counselor. You couldn’t help getting wrapped up in the stories and personal lives unfolding on screen, despite the show business trappings. But there was none of the unique promise of the premiere. Maybe that is Cristina’s point--that she is just another entry in the talk-show derby, who happens to be a star in the Spanish-language media and is interested in the same subjects as everyone else.

Fine. But she really has an edge if she chooses to recognize it and use it, especially in a city like Los Angeles. If not, it will be that much easier to flip over to Phil or Regis and Kathie Lee, or just turn off the TV set because there’s nothing new.