If your child has an aptitude for spelling and you want them to win the Scripps Spelling Bee, you had better be ready to pony up some serious cash for help. Keri Lumm (@thekerilumm) has more.
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Not one, two, but eight dictionary experts claimed the 92nd Scripps National Spelling Bee championship title Thursday, after surviving 20 total rounds on a historic night.
The voice of the Scripps Bee, Jacques Bailly, announced three hours into the final competition that everyone who nailed their 12th word of the night would share the honor, marking the first time more than two contestants won.
The winners were: Rishik Gandhasri, Erin Howard, Saketh Sundar, Shruthika Padhy, Sohum Sukhatankar, Abhijay Kodali, Christopher Serrao and Rohan Raja.
Many brought veteran experience, as more than half of the 16 finalists competed in prime time in Maryland’s Gaylord National Harbor Convention Center last year.
The competitors will each receive $50,000 in cash, a Scripps trophy, reference books and trips to New York and Hollywood to appear on talk shows.
Skills test: Can you spell these 12 challenging words? Scripps National Spelling Bee finalists could
The finalists, ages 12 to 14, beat out more than 546 other competitors. A couple qualified through the return of an invitational program started in 2018, the RSVBee, which gave spellers a chance if they won their school bee or previously competed on the national stage.
The championship hopefuls started strong, as first round words from “Stakhanovite” to “marmennill” didn’t stump a single speller. Example sentences referencing “Avengers” to Mindy Kaling helped the dictionary experts put the challenges in context.
Aisha Randhawa, 13, of Corona, Calif., who finished seventh last year, bowed out after misspelling “cuirassier.” A confident 14 spellers remained after the second prime time round, but after the seventh only eight kept their seats on stage.
Other spellers heard the elimination bell after “ischiocerite,” “Rassenkreis,” and “tettigoniid” among other terms.
Three hours in, Bailly announced the competition would only last another three rounds. After, everyone remaining would win.
The eight co-champions won their titles by correctly spelling auslaut, erysipelas, bougainvillea, aiguillette, pendeloque, palama, cernuous and odylic.
2018 final: Karthik Nemmani, 14, named Scripps Bee champion
Voice of the Spelling Bee: He’s read every word since 2003 until this year
The onstage spelling rounds began Tuesday after preliminary multiple choice tests on Monday. Pressure from the limelight and obscure terminology whittled down the 562 contestants, ages 7 to 15, before the final.
The winners are scheduled to appear on “Live with Kelly and Ryan” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in the coming months.
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