ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes will become the new television host for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, bringing her analytical expertise to the century-old academic competition. The announcement, made Tuesday, marks the first time a celebrity will host the event since LeVar Burton took on the role in 2022.
The hosting change comes as Scripps, the Cincinnati-based media company, works to revitalize the broadcast after taking control from ESPN and moving it to ION and Bounce networks. The company has also enlisted a new production crew headed by Michael Davies, who currently executive produces “Jeopardy!”
This year’s competition is scheduled for May 26-28 at Constitution Hall in downtown Washington, where 247 young spellers will vie for the championship trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.
“My goal in this is to give it the big-game feel,” Kimes shared with The Associated Press before the official announcement. “Any event that requires skill and knowledge and preparation can have that feel if it’s presented with enough care and pride on television.”
Davies, whose resume includes “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” “Reading Rainbow” and “Good Morning Football,” echoes Kimes’ enthusiasm for elevating the competition’s profile. His objective, he told AP, is to “make it bigger and make it more famous.”
“We really need to focus the entire broadcast and everything we’re doing around the stakes of the competition and the incredible winning moment, the winning word that happens at the end of the final,” Davies explained.
The 40-year-old Yale graduate is recognized for her thorough research methods and detailed analysis of game footage when breaking down NFL players and coaching strategies. She describes her preparation for the spelling bee in similar terms.
“It honestly does feel a little bit like watching game tape because I really think these kids are elite competitors, not just in terms of being the best of the best, but you can see all of the work that they so clearly put in,” Kimes explained. “The way they get to the right answer is fascinating to me and the more you watch, the more you see the way their brains work. I see a lot of similarities to what I do with football, and I’m so pumped to be a part of this.”
While Kimes never reached the national competition level, she has personal experience with spelling contests, capturing victories at her school in second, third and fifth grades.
Young competitors earn their spots in the National Spelling Bee through regional victories nationwide and must be in eighth grade or younger to participate. Even the most talented students, many working with professional coaches throughout the year, typically have just one or two opportunities to claim victory in this premier English-language spelling contest before becoming too old to compete.
In recent years, Scripps has primarily featured former spelling bee participants as hosts and commentators on air. Paul Loeffler, a sports broadcaster and former competitor who is also the sibling of bee executive director Corrie Loeffler, will continue in his analyst position.
Despite Scripps’ claims of reaching larger audiences through ION’s broader household availability compared to ESPN, viewership numbers have remained flat and shown slight decreases recently, based on Nielsen statistics. The combined primetime finale audience across ION and Bounce totaled 609,000 in 2022, 641,000 in 2023, 461,000 in 2024 and 488,000 last year.
The competition attracted more than 1 million viewers on ESPN in 2012. The championship rounds of the final three pre-pandemic broadcasts on ESPN recorded audiences of 606,000 (2017), 550,000 (2018) and 559,000 (2019).
