As we write this, we are in the thrall of a television special, the likes of which we've never seen on network television: a spelling bee!
Yes, it's the Scripps National Spelling Bee, being telecast for the first time on network television [in this case, ABC]. It's previously aired on ESPN, pretty much as an alternative "sports" program, and good on them for doing that. Tonight's program was live on the East Coast, and so far we've resisted the temptation to go online and see who actually won the contest.
By the way, these kids are getting killer words, nothing like the softballs like "lithe" or "therapy" that WWP got when, as an unusually precocious fourth-grader, he won the Robinswood Elementary School spelling bee in 1965. Tonight's kids are getting contest-ending words like "exergue," "knaidl," "nauruz" and "mandilion." We'd be thrilled just understand those words, let alone use them in a sentence.
In any case, it's good to see young people on television for reasons other than sports, beauty or crime. So far, there's even been one surprise from the judges. Come to think of it, this is the best reality program we've ever seen on the tube.
Move over, Jeff Probst.
yeah, just wait until the ratings come in. I hear only one person in Portland even bothered to tune in :)
Posted by: adams | Thursday, June 01, 2006 at 09:28 PM