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May 25, 2012

Americans not so hot on spelling

by Anna Johns, posted Jun 5th 2006 10:48AM

abc logoDespite all the hoopla over the National Spelling Bee, thanks to recent movies, Americans aren't willing to watch pre-teens try to spell impossible-to-pronounce words. The final two hours of the Scripps National Spelling Bee aired live on ABC on Friday Thursday night, but the ratings are considered a dud. About 8 million people tuned in, which is about how many watch The Office each week so it's not that bad. In fact, a marathon of The Office on NBC is what came in fourth place on Friday night. A rerun of CSI and FOX's So You Think You Can Dance came in first.

The winner of this year's national spelling bee was an upset. New Jersey 8th grader Katherine Close correctly spelled "ursprache" to win the whole shooting match.

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MalcolmJules

Wow! The Spelling Bee on ABC! I'd like to thank the programming geniuses over at ESPN for doing such a wonderful job of covering "THE BEE" over the years.
Awesome...

June 09 2006 at 7:15 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
AmStarr

My daughter was in a NYC Spelling Bee a few years ago and the only ones in the audience were the parents of the participants.

June 05 2006 at 9:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jim

I loved the fact that ABC covered it live, and I hope it will continue to do so.

I had one complaint about the show: The only thing more awkward than the pre-teens themselves was watching their parents figure out the seating arrangements when their kids were eliminated. Note to ABC: Put extra chairs on stage next year.

June 05 2006 at 6:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Daniel Solis

i tuned in just at the very end!

June 05 2006 at 5:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
WarT0rn

Don't talk about my office like that. C U iN Toledo!

June 05 2006 at 1:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
doc

I have to think that for an off-season program, that cost next to nothing to produce, 8 million is a pretty solid audience.

June 05 2006 at 12:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jonathan Carpenter

I read, I think in the Boston Globe, that ABC was pleased with the ratings and it was better than they expected.

June 05 2006 at 11:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rjlawrencejr

Actually it aired last Thursday night and I thoroughly enjoyed. Read the article more closely and you will see that the audience built over time. If I were ABC, I would be quite pleased. While the article seems to be somewhat dismissive of the audience size, I hardly believe that the network had delusions that somehow the Spelling Bee final was going to post AMERICAN IDOL type numbers. Even more importantly, I am sure the audience for the final two to three times larger than it ever was on ESPN.

June 05 2006 at 11:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Lampbane

Unfortunately, Thursday is drinking night so I went out, though the bar did have it on the TV and my friends and I got into a debate over the worth of spelling bees...

June 05 2006 at 11:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jay

Small Typo....Last sentence...."The winner of this year's national spelling bee (not be) was an upset."

June 05 2006 at 10:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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