LATV’s lively round-table show ‘Decisión 2008’ aims to draw young Latino voters

As TV pundits go, they’re not yet in the same showbiz stratosphere as David Gergen and Arianna Huffington.But it’s a safe bet that Humberto Guida, María Teresa Petersen, Jesús Malverde and their colleagues on LATV’s ‘Decisión 2008’ have more insight than their fellow talking heads about what’s on the minds of one of America’s fastest-growing voting (and viewing) blocs: Latino youth. Spreading that knowledge among young Latinos, as well as to the general public, is the impulse behind LATV’s freewheeling, election-year round-table debate show, apparently the first of its kind. Produced in-house by L.A.-based bilingual entertainment network LATV, in conjunction with the get-out-the-vote organization Voto Latino, ‘Decisión 2008’ was shot in front of a live Los Angeles studio audience earlier in the fall and first aired Oct. 20. It will be rebroadcast at 8 p.m. today. Hosted by Guida, a Cuban American journalist and TV producer, the show’s panel includes Malverde, a Mexican American hip-hop artist and activist; Petersen, Voto Latino’s Colombian-born, Harvard-trained executive director; and Carlos Arias, a Cuban Brazilian producer whose credits include the upcoming reality show contest ‘Miss University.’ The banter, mostly in English, with occasional colorful bursts of Spanglish, is lively and informal, and the overall seriousness level hovers somewhere between CNN and the bilingual channel MTV Tr3s. Rounding out the formula is a large dose of pep-talk enthusiasm, urging viewers to register to vote.