The anchors stumbled over their lines quite a bit and the lack of live news reports left the show feeling a bit canned.

Still, WFLA-Ch. 8's first 10 p.m. newscast created for MyNetworkTV station WTTA-Ch. 38 unfolded mostly the way it was supposed to -- a stripped-down, 35-minute rundown of the day's news events built mostly from quick reports filed by WFLA reporters and/or voiced by the two news anchors.

Indeed, the show, which debuted last night, was so heavily branded with WFLA's logos, the casual viewer could be forgiven for thinking they WERE watching Newschannel 8. The only giveaway, besides the lack of live field reports, was the WTTA logo in the right corner of the screen and anchors Peter Bernard and Katie Coronado.

The news reports seemed to consist mostly of news summaries voiced by the anchors and quick, pre-taped field reports from WFLA reporters -- likely filed just before they did pieces for WFLA. Given how quickly this project was brought to market, it's also understandable that the rapport between the two anchors might feel a bit silted. Still, it was surprising to see a vet like Bernard -- who has reported for WFLA and WFTS over a long local career -- stumbling over stories just as much as Coronado, whose last job was writing for Media General's Spanish-language newspaper, CENTRO.

Broadcasting from WFLA's main set using the station's graphics packages helped give the show a more professional look. And story selection was similar to what everyone else featured that night -- from the shooting scare at a Clearwater middle school to the aborted release of the Hyde Park rapist.

It's hard to imagine this show convincing many of the viewers consuming news at 10 p.m. on fox station WTVT-Ch. 13 to switch over, but it does feel more professional than WTTA's last stab at a newscast, its version of owner Sinclair Broadcasting's News Central system.

For a show created largely as an excuse to grab news-oriented and political advertising, it was a game effort. But I wonder what will happen if a breaking news story falls during the broadcast -- will they be able to feature live reports without disrupting WFLA's news product?