BLAME OUR PERSPICACIOUS READERS FOR NOTICING: This year, the championship finals of the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee not only won't be in D.C. (moving across the Potomac to National Harbor), but they apparently won't be on ABC either -- ESPN, according to the official website, will be covering it live on Thursday, June 2 (corrected) at 8:30pm. Now, mind you, this may be a good thing, if it means that the competition won't be so broken up by lengthy commercial breaks and profile segments, and instead be treated more like the afternoon rounds are -- like a competition. (We'll be here live, regardless.)
More good news? The larger location means the public can buy tickets for all rounds.
In other Bee news, two returning competitors to note today: Canada's Greatest Speller, Laura Newcombe, is back for her third and final time; and 2008 Shonda Fave speller Sriram Hathwar -- then the Bee's youngest speller ever at barely-eight -- is back for a third time, having bested the kid who deprived him in 2010. [The final three words in that Bee: brahnt-uh-FO-bee-uh (fear of thunder); eh-POK-uhl/EH-puh-kuhl (momentous); and vahy-TOO-puh-ruh-tiv (condemnatory).]
You may be the first person in the history of the world to think that an event moving to ESPN will possibly result in fewer profile segments/general nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThere's not as much of an obligation to fill a particular timeslot on ESPN, since they can go to SportsCenter pretty much immediately.
ReplyDeleteJune 4 is a Saturday.
ReplyDeletefixed.
ReplyDeleteAww, but I liked walking past all the participants and family members on my way to work!
ReplyDeleteI am so excited! A network-free Bee. Now, I love ABC dearly but all that fanciness messed up the clean competition that is our Bee.
ReplyDeleteI thought you had to be the parent of a speller to get a ticket. Now how can I justify these children I've had?
ReplyDelete(P.S. to Adam: Howard has been scuttled, it's the Scripps National Spelling Bee)