It's Katie time

A little rough off the line, I'd say. She sounds hoarse and looks a little tired. Maybe she has a cold. I do.

In terms of changes, she's promising a talk-back segment, with a promo from Morgan Spurlock, and the news portion kicks off with a long, meaty story on the resurgence of the Taliban.

Next we get an analysis on the President's speech today, rather than a straight news story on it, followed by a sitdown with Thomas Friedman of the New York Times. Probably not mollifying Rather critics with that one-two.

Katie is better in the interview setting, which was always her strength on "Today."

Short bit on Bill Ford stepping down at Ford, then a quickie on Steve Irwin's death.

Next, "Eye On Your Money," with a look at a new oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. The story has far more information on Katrina than it does on the new field, or what it could mean for consumers or energy independence. Annoying, re-hashing Katrina in a "news" story.

The segment is called "freeSpeech." Spurlock is just the first commentator. He rants about TV pundits - "We're not a nation divided at all. We've just bought into the hype." Blah, blah: Talking about having a civil discourse instead of actually having one.

Katie says Rush Limbaugh will be doing it on Thursday. That might be interesting.

Next up "snapshots," with ancient photos of Prince Charles? Nope, it's an intro into photos of Suri Cruise. Tabloid crap. I. Don't. Care. About. Celebrity. Babies. Ever.

Next, a feature story on a Nicarauguan orphanage and an American artist painting portraits of the children. Weird kind of outreach: They'd probably prefer an X-Box. The reporter portrays it as an awareness thing. Eh.

"All summer long, people have been asking me, 'How will you sign off at the end of your newscast?' I've been wracking my brain and nothing has won out." Instead, she goes to a montage of past anchors' sign-offs (including Will Ferrell's Ron Burgundy). She invites viewers to write in with their ideas.

So, based on this sampling of one program, Couric is trying to make the newscast more viewer-friendly, interactive, and human. I finished the half-hour marginally more knowledgable, if not dancing on the edge of my seat.

Couric made it pretty clear when she was in Denver this summer that she didn't plan to re-invent the wheel or rock the boat much. More like changing the color of the sails. So I'm not blown away or majorly disappointed. I'd watch the freeSpeech feature again if it's somebody interesting. The oil rig story was a big missed opportunity to push a story forward, however.

She sounds better, livelier and sharper in the interview with Don and Shannon on the KKTV interview during KK's 5:30.