Tonight, eight contestants will battle it out to be crowned the Scripps National Spelling Bee winner.
The bees are still buzzing.
The finals of the competition will happen on Thursday evening at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, after the preliminary, quarterfinal, and semifinal rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday.
This year's spellers, all 15 or younger, came from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe. The Bahamas, Canada, and Ghana were also represented, as per the official website of the Bee.
The finalists can be seen contesting from 8 p.m. ET onwards on ION. The channel is available over the air and through most cable, satellite, and streaming platforms for free. They are vying to be the new ruler of the hive, following 2023 winner Dev Shah's victory with the word psammophile.
The second round in the finals includes a vocabulary test, a new addition to the Bee in 2021, where the spellers must choose the correct definition of a word from a multiple choice list. All other rounds in the competition involve traditional oral spelling.
If a champion is not declared after the finale with each speller only getting one chance, a spelling bee can initiate. In this round, a competitor will have 90 seconds to spell as many words as possible from a pre-determined list. 2022 winner Harini Logan earned her title by spelling 22 words in 1.5 minutes.
While there have been multiple joint winners, including the legendary eight-tie in 2019, the spell-off round is intended to reduce the contestants down to one supreme bee. The 2024 rulebook reveals that there are several situations where a spell-off can be initiated, all requiring the possibility of no victor at the conclusion of the live broadcast.
Among the potential royal bees are: YY Liang, 12, from New York; Aditi Muthukumar, 13, from Colorado; Shrey Parikh, 12, from California; Ananya Rao Prassanna, 13, from North Carolina; Rishabh Saha, 14, from California; Kirsten Tiffany Santos, 13, from Texas; Bruhat Soma, 12, from Florida; and Faizan Zaki, 12, from Texas.
Though all finalists will win a cash prize and other exciting perks, the winner receives over $50,000, the prestigious trophy, a reference library from Merriam-Webster, and reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica, along with several other delightful prizes.
However, the pain of defeat might not be so severe, as 65 spellers from previous Bees, including Muthukumar, Parikh, Prassanna, Santos, Soma, and Zaki, returned this year.
CNN's Harmeet Kaur contributed to this story.
Read also:
- Year of climate records: extreme is the new normal
- Precautionary arrests show Islamist terror threat
- UN vote urges Israel to ceasefire
- SPD rules out budget resolution before the end of the year
The finalists, including US representatives YY Liang and Faizan Zaki, will compete for the title on Thursday evening. Regardless of the outcome, they will all receive notable prizes and recognition, with the winner receiving over $50,000.
Source:
