{"id":1267,"date":"2026-05-29T05:04:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1267"},"modified":"2026-05-29T05:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:04:23","slug":"scripps-national-spelling-bee-guide-how-to-watch-who-the-notable-spellers-are-rules-and-prizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1267","title":{"rendered":"Scripps National Spelling Bee guide: How to watch, who the notable spellers are, rules and prizes"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The best young spellers in the English language are competing Thursday night in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, continuing a more than century-old tradition. The three-day competition began Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1265\">Conditions of 4 climbers who fell on Mount McKinley unknown as rescuers try to reach them<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The first bee was held in 1925, when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. After a long run at a convention center in suburban Maryland, the bee returns to the nation&#8217;s capital this year at Constitution Hall, a few blocks from the White House.<\/p>\n<p>Another change for this year: ESPN NFL analyst and recent \u201cCelebrity Jeopardy!\u201d champion Mina Kimes joined the bee as its television host.<\/p>\n<p>This is the 98th bee; it was canceled from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year\u2019s champion will be the 111th, because the bee ended in a two-way tie several times and an eight-way tie in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty of the past 36 champions have been of Indian heritage, including last year\u2019s winner, Faizan Zaki.<\/p>\n<p>How can I watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee?<\/p>\n<p>The bee is broadcast and streamed on channels and platforms owned by Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company.<\/p>\n<p>The finals will be broadcast Thursday on ION from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. They will also air or be streamed on these Scripps-owned channels or services: ION Plus, Bounce, Grit, Laff, The Spot, Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More, Scripps News and Scripps Sports Network.<\/p>\n<p>What are the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee?<\/p>\n<p>Spellers qualify by advancing through regional bees hosted by sponsors around the country. In order to compete, spellers must not have advanced beyond the eighth grade or be older than 15.<\/p>\n<p>Competitors must get through two preliminary rounds, where they are quizzed on words from a list provided in advance. There is one spelling round and one multiple-choice vocabulary round.<\/p>\n<p>Those who make it through the preliminaries sit for a written spelling and vocabulary test, with the top 100 or so finishers advancing to the quarterfinals. The words for the test, and for all subsequent rounds, are taken from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the quarterfinals and semifinals, spellers are eliminated at the microphone through oral spelling or vocabulary questions.<\/p>\n<p>About a dozen spellers typically make it to the finals, although this year only nine made it. When only two remain, Scripps has the option to use a lightning-round tiebreaker known as a \u201cspell-off\u201d to determine the champion.<\/p>\n<p>Who is competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee?<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s bee had 247 spellers representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, three U.S. territories and five other countries: The Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. After the preliminary rounds, 167 were left, and that field was cut to 95 quarterfinalists after the written spelling and vocabulary test.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1263\">Venue gets mixed reviews as National Spelling Bee returns to DC ahead of White House UFC event<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The top returning finisher from 2025 is Sarv Dharavane of Dunwoody, Georgia, who finished third last year as an 11-year-old fifth-grader. This year he got a perfect score on the written test, and he&#8217;s one of the spellers to qualify for Thursday&#8217;s finals.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the other finalists:<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shrey Parikh, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Rancho Cucamonga, California, who finished third in 2024. He lost at the school level in 2025 but has dominated the bee circuit since, winning the South Asian Spelling Bee, the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee and the Words of Wisdom Spelling Bee.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Oliver Halkett, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Los Angeles who finished in a tie for seventh last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zwe Spacetime, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Fort Washington, Maryland, and the younger brother of 2021 champion Zaila Avant-garde.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Aiden Meng, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Orinda, California, who bowed out in the quarterfinals last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ishaan Gupta, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Jersey City, New Jersey, who was a semifinalist last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kushi Gottimukkala, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Morrisville, North Carolina, and a semifinalist last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Avishka Dudala, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Prosper, Texas, and a semifinalist last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Logan Bailey, a 12-year-old sixth-grader from Houston. The winner of the North South Foundation spelling bee, he is making his debut on the national stage.<\/p>\n<p>What are the prizes for the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 First place: $52,500 in cash, reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, a custom trophy and commemorative medal, and $1,000 in flight credits from Delta Air Lines.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Second place: $25,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Third place: $15,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fourth place: $10,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fifth place: $5,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sixth place: $2,500.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 All other finalists: $2,000.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1261\">Crews recover the remains of 6 of the 9 workers missing after Washington chemical tank rupture<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The best young spellers in the English language are competing Thursday night in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, continuing a more than century-old tradition. The three-day competition began Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Scripps National Spelling Bee guide: How to watch, who the notable spellers are, rules and prizes - South Florida Moving Guides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1267\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scripps National Spelling Bee guide: How to watch, who the notable spellers are, rules and prizes - South Florida Moving Guides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The best young spellers in the English language are competing Thursday night in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, continuing a more than century-old tradition. 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