After a gestation period longer than an African elephant —and with a hell of a lot more research—Twin Cities Live, a.k.a. KSTP-TV's "new Steve and Sharon show . . . without Steve and Sharon" . . . debuted a couple hours ago. In gotta tell ya, I've been hearing about this thing for so long I half expected the new hosts, Rebekah Wood and John Hanson, to get a Lifetime Achievement Award on day one. (If I'm not mistaken, it was late 2005 that word first leaked that the Hubbards were reviving a live local afternoon show.)

Since I bear no resemblance whatsoever to the show's intended audience (other than being awake and within range of TV at 3 in the afternoon), I'm sure you are dying to hear what I thought.

It was OK. But then I had what might be called low expectations. My take has been, "Swell, another non-variation on tips for cooking a $10 meal for six, and, 'Oh, goody!', knee-to-knee chats with touring diet book authors! But who'll do the Gary Lumpkin bit and jump off a thirty-foot tower into a dish of Jell-O?" (The target demo apparently loves masochistic guys who'll risk permanent spinal injury for an easy laugh.)

All that said, I give the Hubbards—TV boss Rob Hubbard, in particular—credit for doing what no other "local" TV station dares do: namely produce an hour of original television outside the established silos of 5–9 a.m. and Sunday mornings. (KARE's 10 a.m. weekday show, Showcase Minnesota is one of Gannett Inc.'s "advertainment" gimmicks where the diet authors, or whoever, pay to be interviewed by the station's host. Journalistically, there isn't a hell of a lot of difference between that and this, but then again, none of this has anything to do with journalism.)

As Twin Cities Live was being spawned last winter, Rob Hubbard explained to me that the financial strategy was based on being every afternoon viewer's "second choice," that is to say, the place they'll go when they don't like the topics anywhere else at 3 p.m. My relative indifference to it all was that it is so unabashed about chasing stay-at-home moms, the same heavily pandered to demographic supposedly glued to all the local and national morning shows. (When exactly do these busy women actually do all that child rearing and housework? I mean, if they're watching TV all day?) It was clear there was not going to be any of that funky thinking-outside-the-box stuff with Twin Cities Live. This one was going straight down the tried-and-true middle.

Primary topics: Losing weight. Makeovers. Cooking tips. Dieting. Child care. Taking off pounds quickly. Sunblocks for the kids, and slimming down for beach wear.

My pal Neal Justin at the Strib wrote the obligatory big blockbuster preview piece in yesterday's paper. (Neal, baby, one word: "Pulitzer." Drinks on me next time.)

Without paying any attention to the talent during the run-up to day one, other than registering their names, I can say (based on way too many years of watching way too many "ooky" characters [people you wouldn't want to ride an elevator with]—to borrow one of my wife's favorite descriptors—clog up local TV on the cheap) this Hanson guy is a natural. Perfectly at ease here at the get-go (maybe he's one of those guys who'll seize up a month from now, who knows?), he operates with the kind of low-metabolism attitude that says to jaded grouches everywhere, "Dude, I'm not sayin' this is brain surgery."

Ms. Wood, on the other hand, was wired a little/lot tighter today and probably always has been. She'll improve, I expect, but someone needs to remind her that the most successful women in this shtick are unapologetic about their personal idiosyncrasies—Kathie Lee, Kelly Ripa, etc. Self absorbed diva? Fine. Just be funny. But always perfectly earnest and proper? Huh uh. This isn't Diane Sawyer in Darfur.

(Not that Sharon Anderson was exactly the first one to yell, "Let's do body shots!" at the block party.)