(Editor's note: We figured that under all the controversy about the Busch patch, something good had to be going on somewhere at B.A.S.S. So we went "in search of," and tracked down Bassmaster TV show host Jerry McKinnis who talked a little about ESPN and a little more about next year's show.)

BassFan.com: So what's going on?

McKinnis: Well, every now and then we hear that maybe ESPN isn't as excited as they used to be (about B.A.S.S.). But if they're not, I haven't noticed it. A lot of times (people react) when the folks at ESPN aren't right in the middle of something to where it looks like they're interested. They have a lot of things going on and they get distracted. But they know that I'm interested, and they kind of feel like everything's okay if we're interested in it. They are in fact excited about everything, just as much as ever.

BassFan.com: Will the show change at all next year?

McKinnis: We had a meeting in Little Rock (Ark., JM Associate's offices, recently). The ESPN production folks came down and we took (last year's Bassmaster) shows and tore them to pieces. When we were all done you would've thought we'd been doing a terrible job. But that's okay with me. That's how we get better, is to tear it apart. Our biggest competition is ourselves. The show has to be better next week than it was this week, and better next year than it was this year. Mark Quenzel (ESPN senior VP of programming), who's a real inspiration to us, said, 'Boy Jerry, you really did a good job this year on TV. Now what are you going to do?' (McKinnis laughs).

BassFan.com: With 100 percent being optimal, was this year's show 50 percent of the way there? Eighty percent?

McKinnis: I don't think we did as good as we can do (this) year. Most people are really happy with what we did. It's probably an improvement over anything they've ever had, but it's still not as good as what we think we can do -- for a lot of reasons. Even though we'd done FLW (TV) in the past, (this year) we were in a whole new environment. We spent a lot of time trying to get comfortable in that new environment, and now we feel a little more at home.

(Next year) we're also not covering the Opens. It will be nice to get to Rick Clunn, Davy Hite and Denny Brauer on a regular basis. We did 17 tournaments last year, and only 6 were Tour events. So we had only 6 cracks at the superstars, no offense to the Open guys. This year we're doing nothing but the Tour events.

I really hope that we do 20 percent better (next) year than we did (this) year. We're probably going to do that with more information. We're going to try to explain more about what everybody's doing, and show visually more what they're going to do. We'll try awful hard not to take things for granted. We say things fishermen take for granted, but they're not the majority of our audience out there. The viewers we really want to get interested in this project think, 'Why? What does he mean?' We'll really be making a concerted effort to do a better job of explaining what's going on out there, and we're making a real effort to get more pros on in each show.

You can't drop down so low that you turn off the really good fishermen, so we'll have to try to take care of both (bass anglers and people who don't know much about fishing). I'm talking about the occasional fisherman and somebody who maybe doesn't fish at all. We need those viewers.

Our set and everything will be the same as it was. This Maptech stuff we're doing will be upgraded quite a bit. We'll be integrating some 3D graphics with the Maptech material and making it a little more real-looking.

BassFan.com: Is there anything else you're excited about?

McKinnis: I'm kind of excited about going back to the MegaBucks (holes) format -- the Showdown format we're now calling Super Sixes. We're really excited about doing that. We were so disappointed when we first came to B.A.S.S. because they had done away with MegaBucks. When we were doing (FLW) tournaments, we were always envious that (B.A.S.S.) had that format over there. We thought it had a lot of potential, and then they did away with it.

Now we've got that back in the mix -- 4 of them. They'll make a little bit different television. It will be a break from week after week of the same thing. I think it will make better television, but we haven't done it yet. When you get in that situation, moving around from hole to hole, it gives us a better shot at exposing some of (the pros') thought processes and strategies for making that happen. We're looking forward to that.

BassFan.com: What do you think about next year?

McKinnis: I think next year will be one of the most important years in bass fishing. There may be another one down the road that might be more important, but boy, this is a big one. With the expanded schedule, the controversy over the schedule (conflicts) with FLW and so on, it will be a very important year.

BassFan.com: One more thing: how's your heart? (McKinnis had a heart attack in late October. Click here to read about it.)

McKinnis: I'm doing very well. I've been back in for a major check-up where they put you through a really tough test and monitor it to make sure everything's working, and I did just fine. But I'm so busy and it's going to get worse. I'm trying my darndest to slow it down and take it easy. It just hasn't happened yet.