{"id":908654,"date":"2026-05-27T13:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/mina-kimes-takes-over-as-scripps-national-spelling-bee-host\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T13:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:18:15","slug":"mina-kimes-takes-over-as-scripps-national-spelling-bee-host","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/mina-kimes-takes-over-as-scripps-national-spelling-bee-host\/","title":{"rendered":"Mina Kimes takes over as Scripps National Spelling Bee host"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/ben-nuckols\"><\/p>\n<picture data-crop=\"60x60\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\" ><source width=\"60\" height=\"60\" ><img decoding=\"async\"  width=\"60\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/103c5e3\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3459x3459+0+179\/resize\/60x60!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fe4%2F6b%2F78992c6e48dea1bce3bc5e4bcfcb%2Fnuckols-headshot-2024-ben-nuckols.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<\/picture>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\n                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1778015110000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\"><br \/>\n                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template><br \/>\n                    <span data-date>\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n                <\/bsp-timestamp>\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>    <bsp-page-actions><\/p>\n<p>    <\/bsp-page-actions><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Mina Kimes is taking over as television host of the <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/scripps-national-spelling-bee-2025-champion-70f6767e4f30a29b52dfc3dfc77eb553\">Scripps National Spelling Bee,<\/a><\/span> and the ESPN NFL analyst hopes to use her outsider\u2019s perspective to capture the excitement of the 101-year-old competition.<\/p>\n<p>Kimes, whose hiring was announced Tuesday, becomes the first celebrity host for the bee since <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/entertainment-lifestyle-celebrity-spelling-bees-national-spelling-bee-4d5c6c2e835f3da7fbcf96dffc97feca\">LeVar Burton<\/a><\/span> in 2022. That was the year Scripps took over the broadcast from ESPN, its longtime TV home, and began airing it on ION and Bounce, both of which are owned by the Cincinnati-based media company.<\/p>\n<p>Scripps has also brought in a new production team for the broadcast, led by Michael Davies \u2014 currently the executive producer of \u201cJeopardy!\u201d \u2014 as it seeks to reverse a decline in ratings.<\/p>\n<p><span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/spellingbee.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">This year\u2019s bee<\/a><\/span> runs from May 26 to 28 at a new venue, Constitution Hall in downtown Washington, with 247 spellers competing for a trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy goal in this is to give it the big-game feel,\u201d Kimes told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the announcement. \u201cAny event that requires skill and knowledge and preparation can have that feel if it\u2019s presented with enough care and pride on television.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Davies, whose credits also include \u201cWho Wants to Be a Millionaire,\u201d \u201cReading Rainbow\u201d and \u201cGood Morning Football,\u201d shares Kimes\u2019 appreciation for the bee, and he told AP his goal is to \u201cmake it bigger and make it more famous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really need to focus the entire broadcast and everything we\u2019re doing around the stakes of the competition and the incredible winning moment, the winning word that happens at the end of the final,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>A Yale-educated journalist, the 40-year-old Kimes is known for using extensive research and study of game video to explain the strengths and weaknesses of NFL players and coaches. She said her preparation for the bee has been similar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt 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,\u201d Kimes said. \u201cThe 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\u2019m so pumped to be a part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although she never competed on the national stage, Kimes has a history in spelling, winning bees at the school level in the second, third and fifth grades.<\/p>\n<p>Spellers qualify for the National Spelling Bee by winning regional bees around the country and are eligible to compete through the eighth grade. Even the most gifted kids, many of whom study and train year-round under the tutelage of paid coaches, often get only one or two chances to win the most prestigious spelling competition in the English language before they age out. <\/p>\n<p>Over the last few years, Scripps has relied mostly on former spellers as on-air hosts and commentators. Longtime analyst Paul Loeffler, a sports broadcaster, former speller and the brother of bee executive director Corrie Loeffler, will return in that role.<\/p>\n<p>While Scripps touted bigger potential audiences from its move to ION, which is available in more households than ESPN, ratings have been stagnant and dipped slightly over the past two years, according to Nielsen data. The combined audience for the primetime finals on ION and Bounce was 609,000 in 2022, 641,000 in 2023, 461,000 in 2024 and 488,000 last year.<\/p>\n<p>The bee drew over 1 million viewers on ESPN in 2012. The finals of the last three pre-pandemic bees on ESPN had viewership of 606,000 (2017), 550,000 (2018) and 559,000 (2019).<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow him at <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/APBenNuckols\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/x.com\/APBenNuckols<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Ben Nuckols<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/scripps-national-spelling-bee-mina-kimes-host-espn-5360fe4aaab7c74d6e2ac8ff57108caa\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] \u00a0 Mina Kimes is taking over as television host of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and the ESPN NFL analyst hopes to use her outsider\u2019s perspective to capture the excitement of the 101-year-old competition. Kimes, whose hiring was announced Tuesday, becomes the first celebrity host for the bee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":908655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141378,1409],"tags":[143014,5094],"class_list":["post-908654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kimes","category-takes","tag-kimes","tag-takes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}