ESPN

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — ESPN Outdoors is raising the bar on its coverage of the 2002 CITGO BASSMASTERS Classic by dedicating an unprecedented full week of special programming to bass fishing. "Bass Week" will culminate with a full hour of live "prime time" coverage of the Classic weigh-in on Saturday.

Coverage of Bass Week on ESPN2 begins Monday, July 22, with the action switching to ESPN on Saturday evening for the final weigh-in. Bass Week will include daily updates and coverage of the Classic from Birmingham and nearby Lay Lake and will feature original programming and special segments devoted exclusively to our sport.

Original programming will include a series of unparalleled specials, including the CITGO Venezuelan B.A.S.S. Event and the CITGO BASSMASTER Celebrity Challenge, which was held last month in Orlando. The Celebrity Challenge will feature six NASCAR drivers competing alongside six professional B.A.S.S. anglers in a unique tournament.

A special treat will be the BASS Masters Classic Yearbook segments, knock-offs of the popular ESPN Sports Century shows that take inside looks at legendary athletes, their careers and their personalities. Some 80 anglers, bass fishing legends and industry leaders were interviewed for the yearbook series which will showcase each of the 31 previous Classics. This year, ESPN will look back at the 2001 world championship, among others. For more, see the ESPN programming guide below.

The special segments and same-day coverage of the Classic are proof that ESPN is committed to growing the sport of bass fishing as it has never been done before, according to ESPN coordinating producer Tina Thornton.

"We treat the Classic from a production standpoint like we do any other major ESPN-televised event," she said. "Our goals this year are to increase fishing footage, reveal more of the personal side of the anglers through vignettes, and keep the scoreboard more up to date as weights change throughout the competition day.

"We also plan to use the MapTech mapping software each day to pinpoint where the leaders are fishing on Lay Lake, which will be a challenge since it's normally done on a week turnaround for The BASSMASTERS series."

MapTech traces onto a map the path of each angler's boat by using GPS technology. By showing underwater elements and locations, the viewer gets a better understanding of the fishing conditions than ever before.

An ESPN production staff of roughly 80 people will be on-site to cover the Classic. The action will be particularly intense on Saturday's championship round when the competition is cut to the Top 20 anglers.

Ten of the leaders will be followed by the ESPN camera boats with producers and reporters joining them. Also on Saturday, the plan is for ESPN Outdoors host Tommy Sanders to break in with live updates during the morning outdoor programming block on ESPN2. He will be joined later that day by ESPN Outdoors' Jerry McKinnis to anchor the live ESPN coverage of the weigh-in from the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.

One aspect of the same-day coverage that could pose a logistical challenge for the production crew is the distance between the boat ramp at Paradise Marina and the ESPN mobile production unit at the Civic Center. With a driving time of at least one hour, the videotapes recording the day's fishing footage would arrive about the same time the live coverage begins each day. That is, if the tapes made the trip back with the first boat.

To beat the clock, Thornton said her production team plans to ferry the raw tape footage by helicopter.

"By collecting all of the tapes from the camera boats and flying them to us, we can have the footage edited and packaged in time for the live broadcast," she said.

In the big scheme of television production, such details are nothing new. But one thing is for certain — ESPN is firmly committed to growing B.A.S.S. and the sport's world championship with Bass Week and its unprecedented live coverage of the Classic. Stay tuned!

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