Mina Kimes is taking on as tv host of the Scripps Nationwide Spelling Bee, and the ESPN NFL analyst hopes to make use of her outsider’s perspective to seize the joy of the 101-year-old competitors.
Kimes, whose hiring was introduced Tuesday, turns into the primary movie star host for the bee since LeVar Burton in 2022. That was the yr Scripps took over the published from ESPN, its longtime TV house, and started airing it on ION and Bounce, each of that are owned by the Cincinnati-based media firm.
Scripps has additionally introduced in a brand new manufacturing staff for the published, led by Michael Davies — at present the chief producer of “Jeopardy!” — because it seeks to reverse a decline in rankings.
This yr’s bee runs from Might 26-28 at a brand new venue, Structure Corridor in downtown Washington, with 247 spellers competing for a trophy and greater than $50,000 in money and prizes.
“My objective in that is to present it the big-game really feel,” Kimes informed The Related Press in an interview forward of the announcement. “Any occasion that requires ability and data and preparation can have that really feel if it’s offered with sufficient care and pleasure on tv.”
Davies, whose credit additionally embrace “Who Needs to Be a Millionaire,” “Studying Rainbow” and “Good Morning Soccer,” shares Kimes’ appreciation for the bee, and he informed AP his objective is to “make it larger and make it extra well-known.”
“We actually have to focus the complete broadcast and every little thing we’re doing across the stakes of the competitors and the unbelievable successful second, the successful phrase that occurs on the finish of the ultimate,” he mentioned.
Eric McCandless by way of Getty Photographs
A Yale-educated journalist, the 40-year-old Kimes is thought for utilizing in depth analysis and examine of recreation video to elucidate the strengths and weaknesses of NFL gamers and coaches. She mentioned her preparation for the bee has been comparable.
“It truthfully does really feel just a little bit like watching recreation tape as a result of I actually suppose these youngsters are elite opponents, not simply by way of being the perfect of the perfect, however you may see all the work that they so clearly put in,” Kimes mentioned. “The way in which they get to the proper reply is fascinating to me and the extra you watch, the extra you see the best way their brains work. I see numerous similarities to what I do with soccer, and I’m so pumped to be part of this.”
Though she by no means competed on the nationwide stage, Kimes has a historical past in spelling, successful bees on the college stage within the second, third and fifth grades.
Spellers qualify for the Nationwide Spelling Bee by successful regional bees across the nation and are eligible to compete by the eighth grade. Even essentially the most gifted youngsters, lots of whom examine and practice year-round below the tutelage of paid coaches, usually get just one or two possibilities to win essentially the most prestigious spelling competitors within the English language earlier than they age out.
Over the previous few years, Scripps has relied totally on former spellers as on-air hosts and commentators. Longtime analyst Paul Loeffler, a sports activities broadcaster, former speller and the brother of bee govt director Corrie Loeffler, will return in that function.
Whereas Scripps touted larger potential audiences from its transfer to ION, which is on the market in additional households than ESPN, rankings have been stagnant and dipped barely over the previous two years, based on Nielsen knowledge. The mixed viewers for the primetime finals on ION and Bounce was 609,000 in 2022, 641,000 in 2023, 461,000 in 2024 and 488,000 final yr.
The bee drew over 1 million viewers on ESPN in 2012. The finals of the final three pre-pandemic bees on ESPN had viewership of 606,000 (2017), 550,000 (2018) and 559,000 (2019).
Ben Nuckols has coated the Scripps Nationwide Spelling Bee since 2012. Comply with him at https://x.com/APBenNuckols