The finest young spellers in the English language are gathering this week for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a tradition spanning more than a century. The three-day competition begins Tuesday and concludes Thursday night.
First held in 1925, the bee was originally organized by the Louisville Courier-Journal, which invited other newspapers to host local bees and send their champions to Washington. After many years at a convention centre in suburban Maryland, the bee returns to the nation's capital this year at Constitution Hall, just a few blocks from the White House.
This year also brings a new television host: Mina Kimes, an ESPN NFL analyst and recent champion of 'Celebrity Jeopardy!'.
The 2026 bee is the 98th edition. It was cancelled from 1943 to 1945 due to World War II and again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The winner this year will be the 111th champion overall, as past years have seen multiple ties, including an eight-way tie in 2019.
Thirty of the last 36 champions have been of Indian heritage, including last year's winner, Faizan Zaki.
How to Watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee
The bee is broadcast and streamed on channels and platforms owned by Scripps, a media company based in Cincinnati.
- Tuesday – Preliminary rounds stream on Scripps Sports Network and spellingbee.com from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. EDT.
- Wednesday – Quarterfinals stream on Scripps Sports Network and spellingbee.com from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Semifinals stream on those platforms from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. A tape-delayed broadcast of the semifinals airs on ION from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
- Thursday – Finals broadcast on ION from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The semifinals and finals also air or stream on these Scripps-owned channels: ION Plus, Bounce, Grit, Laff, The Spot, Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More, Scripps News and Scripps Sports Network.
Rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
Spellers qualify by advancing through regional bees hosted by sponsors across the country. To compete, spellers must not have advanced beyond the eighth grade and must be aged 15 or younger.
Contestants must get through two preliminary rounds, where they are tested on words from a list provided in advance. There is one spelling round and one multiple-choice vocabulary round.
Those who pass the preliminaries sit for a written spelling and vocabulary test, with the top 100 or so finishers advancing to the quarterfinals. Words for the test and all subsequent rounds come from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary.
During the quarterfinals and semifinals, spellers are eliminated at the microphone through oral spelling or vocabulary questions.
About a dozen spellers reach the finals. When only two remain, Scripps may use a lightning-round tiebreaker called a 'spell-off' to determine the champion.
Notable Spellers in the 2026 Bee
This year's bee features 247 spellers representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, three U.S. territories and five other countries: The Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.
The top returning finisher from 2025 is Sarv Dharavane of Dunwoody, Georgia, who finished third last year as an 11-year-old fifth-grader. He still has two years of eligibility remaining.
Other strong contenders include:
- Shrey Parikh – a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Rancho Cucamonga, California, who finished third in 2024. He has dominated the bee circuit recently, winning the South Asian Spelling Bee, the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee and the Words of Wisdom Spelling Bee.
- Oliver Halkett – a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Los Angeles who tied for seventh last year.
- Esha Marupudi – a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Chandler, Arizona, who also tied for seventh in 2025.
Prizes for the Champion
The winner receives a custom trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. Prize payouts are as follows:
- First place: $52,500 in cash, reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, a custom trophy and commemorative medal, and $1,000 in flight credits from Delta Air Lines.
- Second place: $25,000.
- Third place: $15,000.
- Fourth place: $10,000.
- Fifth place: $5,000.
- Sixth place: $2,500.
- All other finalists: $2,000.
