
Scripps Spelling Bee Is Its Own Kind Of Sport - and Has Its Own Kind of Broadcast on Ion Television The 99-year-old competition is now on its own network By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Wednesday, May 29, 2024 - 11:47 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The Scripps Spelling Bee is the Super Bowl for smart kids. Contestants from all over the world compete to be the last kid standing - their ages top out at 15, and they cannot be past the eighth grade by Aug. 31 of the year before the competition - with the correct spelling of some of the English language's most abstruse and recondite words.
This week's broadcast of the four-day event on Scripps-owned Ion Television - its third year there since leaving a nearly 30-year broadcast partnership with ESPN - demonstrates how the event is moving on a path similar to sports on live television and streaming. It even shares many of sports' vendors and technology platforms: Dome Productions mobile unit, Fletcher robo cams, PSSI Global Services remote satellite uplink, LED screens from Fuze Technical Group, lighting by 4Wall Entertainment, live sound by MHA Audio, and comms by East Shore Sound and Blanchard Communications.
The event takes place at its longtime venue at the Washington, DC-adjacent Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, MD.
Scripps' David Hudson: [The Bee] has the feeling and the sense of sports. an Olympics sort of an event.
Asked whether the Spelling Bee is a kind of sports event, Scripps National Networks Head of Original Programming David Hudson, who has served as executive producer of the Bee since Ion took it over, offers a qualified yes, likening it to an Olympics, in which contestants have already established their status and now compete at an elite level.
It's a competition, he points out. I think, as it relates to live television, it has the feeling and the sense of sports. But I think what's important to understand, too, is that the kids are competing against the dictionary and not necessarily against each other. They've already succeeded. They're all winners already. It truly feels like it's an Olympics sort of an event. I can't think, from a competition standpoint, of anything else that's televised that evokes the same emotions as watching sports.
Hudson is joined in what is a nearly year-long planning undertaking for Bee Week by Story Producer Nancy Saslow; Broadcast Analyst Paul Loeffler; Supervising Producer David Bryant; Director Michael Dempsey; and EIC, Production, Bill Urban.
Audio and Video Audio is as crucial to the Spelling Bee as it would be to any live, competitive event - perhaps more so because each word is parsed literally letter by letter. Contestants are heard through a variable-height podium microphone (like the one used at the Academy Awards broadcasts, necessary because of the children's' varied heights), while the judges wear wireless lavs. In one new wrinkle for this year's Bee, Co-Host Julie Grant, accompanied by a separate boom microphone, wades into the roughly 1,000-seat audience, largely comprising parents and other family members, to do live interviews during the show.
One of the most high-stress positions on the show is that of Graphics Manager James Stevenson. Operating a Ross Xpressions system, he's responsible for all the graphics presented, including the words as they're being spelled, their definitions, and everything viewers see in written form on the television screen. He's collaborating with Dev Jaiswal, a 2015 Bee finalist who thus understands the criticality of how words look on screen. He'll color-code the letters of each word as it is spelled - green for correct letters, red for well, you know.
Competitive Numbers The Spelling Bee achieves numbers many sports events would appreciate, in part because Scripps has assembled a big broadcast/streaming stage for it. In 2023, the semifinals and finals drew 9.2 million viewers, an increase of 22% over its 2022 debut on Ion. The 2024 edition of the competition airs on Ion and Bounce TV and is streamed on ION Plus, Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More, and spellingbee.com from Tuesday, May 28 through the finals, which will air live on ION at 8-10 p.m. Thursday, May 30.
Dev Shah correctly spelled psammophile to win the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Scripps itself has moved forcefully into sports media very recently. Scripps Sports was established in 2022 - the year it took over broadcasting its Spelling Bee from ESPN - with a regular-season package of Friday-night WNBA games on its Ion Television broadcast network, which it acquired in 2020. It has since added a contract with the NWSL and regional games for the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Utah's NHL expansion team. It's looking to diverge from the faltering RSN model, which Scripps President/CEO Adam Symson has declared an old model not set up to move forward.
Hudson, who has supervised live broadcasts for 30 years, including at Turner Networks, acknowledges that there is an alignment between Scripps' sports-media ambitions and the Spelling Bee, in the sense that all are live events and are competitions of one kind or another. However, he adds, the correlation between league sports and the Bee came about separately and organically.
Even so, the links between them are robust. One such link is 15-year-old Louisiana native Zaila Avant-garde, winner of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee (winning word: Murraya, a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees) and holder of three basketball-related Guinness World Records.
(The Bee hasn't escaped the heightened gambling environment around sports today. Wagers have been placed on its outcomes, with micro betting on things like whether the winning word will be singular or plural.)
Saslow oversees development
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
24/04/2026
The NASA 777 aircraft departs the L3Harris facility in Waco, Texas....
24/04/2026
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has closed a $1 b...
24/04/2026
In partnership with Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, Inc., L3Harris Technologies is advancing autonomous aviation for the U.S. Marine Corps' Aerial Logistics Co...
24/04/2026
L3Harris' hC2 software, powered by Systematic SitaWare, strengthens battlefield decision-making by using open architectures to connect platforms, sensors an...
24/04/2026
Artist rendering of L3Harris' AERIS X next-generation airborne early warning...
24/04/2026
AgileTV presents in Las Vegas its technological proposition to power safer, more scalable and efficient TV ecosystems for telecom operators, ISPs and entertainm...
24/04/2026
Canada's C gep de Jonqui re and Calrec take five with a substantial TV studio upgrade Underscoring its global reputation as one of Canada's most renowne...
24/04/2026
Redefining Broadcast Workflows at NAB 2026 with our Most Powerful Hardware, Virtual and Hybrid Audio Lineup Yet We're looking forward to meeting up with you...
24/04/2026
Recognition for incredible advances in broadcast and enterprise control...
24/04/2026
Dalet Takes Home The Best in Show Award for Dalia at 2026 NAB
Brie Clayton April 23, 2026
0 Comments
Media-aware agentic AI wins big for real-world ef...
24/04/2026
Calrec and Grass Valley Unlock Exceptional Choice and Flexibility for Broadcaste...
24/04/2026
Bitfocus Buttons wins NAB Show Product of the Year Award
Brie Clayton April 24, 2026
0 Comments
Recognition for incredible advances in broadcast and e...
24/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/04/2026
Media-aware agentic AI wins big for real-world efficiencies and time to value
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, to...
24/04/2026
Mediagenix wins for its Scheduling Optimization capabilities that help broadcasters and FAST operators move beyond traditional scheduling automation toward cont...
24/04/2026
Setplex today announced that it has taken home the NAB Show Project of the Year Award in the Distribution category for its innovative deployment with UVOtv. Dur...
24/04/2026
Media and post-production teams are invited to experience next-level resource planning, project management, and connected media workflows at Stand K59 in The Gr...
24/04/2026
April 24 2026, 00:00 (PDT) Dolby Elevates In-Car Entertainment to New Heights at Auto China 2026
More Automakers, More Models: Dolby-enabled Vehicles Drive...
24/04/2026
April 24 2026, 06:48 (PDT) Dolby Cinema Arrives in Tamil Nadu: Dolby Laboratori...
23/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/04/2026
Partnership between ARRI and SmallHD brings new Hi-5 license
Configurable monitor overlays adapt to individual working styles
Supported by SmallHD monitors ru...
23/04/2026
Lighting Master Cronenweth ASC brings a unique look to each grid world with the help of Astera
Jeff Cronenweth on the set of Disney's TRON: ARES. Photo by...
23/04/2026
DP Chloe Smolkin ( The Late Show, Kidz Bop ) joins director Danielle Beckmann and writer/actor Raji Ahsan behind the camera for the heartfelt short comedy Dr...
23/04/2026
Apply now to join the 2026 Producer Delegation to TIFF: The Market 23 April 2026
Screen Australia, in partnership with Ontario Creates, has opened application...
23/04/2026
FOX Advertising Launches FOX AdStudio, Unifying Audience Intelligence Across Its...
23/04/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced that Dalia, its agentic AI solution for media & entertainment, ha...
23/04/2026
Six crafts. Six lives.
Six reasons to believe that making things by hand
still...
23/04/2026
The festival programme promises a feast of drama, a bumper packed fringe festiva...
23/04/2026
AI agents have revolutionized developer workflows, and their next frontier is kn...
23/04/2026
Dermot Bannon's Celebrity Super Spaces airs Sunday 26 April and 3 May on RT ...
23/04/2026
GeForce NOW is doubling down on what matters most: gamers. This week's upgra...
22/04/2026
Solid State Logic is advancing its System T platform with a stronger focus on IP...
22/04/2026
From immersive audio to live streaming, Dolby Laboratories is focused on the fut...
22/04/2026
Shallow depth-of-field cameras have taken the industry by storm. Its debut a han...
22/04/2026
Riedel Communications (Booth C4908) announced that Eastern Kentucky University (...
22/04/2026
The NAB Show is in full swing, and the SVG and SVG Europe editorial teams are chasing down the hottest stories from all over the Las Vegas Convention Center. He...
22/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the URSA Cine 12K LF 100G, a new model in the URSA Cine family adding 100G Ethernet for SMPTE 2110 live production output up to ...
22/04/2026
Celebrating its 40th anniversary, NEP is leaning into hybrid production with the...
22/04/2026
NEP VP, Platform Dan Murphy sits down at the 2026 NAB Show to unpack what NEP P...
22/04/2026
Spotify and the New York Liberty are teaming up to give music and basketball fan...
22/04/2026
New 20-minute documentary explores iconic design The Focusrite Room in Mesa, Arizona, where John Aquilino hosts the Studio Console 005.
In 2025, Focusrite co...