Final rounds of Scripps National Spelling Beeto be broadcast live on ABC during primetime

For
immediate
release
(NYSE: SSP)
April 27, 2006

CINCINNATI – Live television coverage of the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee will be moving to primetime this year on the ABC Television Network.

ABC will broadcast the final championship rounds of the bee in high definition from
8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 1. Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts will host the ABC broadcast.

Preliminary championship rounds of the bee will air live earlier in the day on ESPN, which has televised the final rounds of the bee in their entirety since 1994. The ESPN broadcast is scheduled for noon to 3 p.m., EDT. SportsCenter anchor Chris McKendry will host the ESPN broadcast.

“ABC’s decision to move the Scripps National Spelling Bee to primetime affirms for us how deeply this unique event is engrained in the American psyche,” said Kenneth W. Lowe, president and chief executive officer for The E. W. Scripps Company. “Now, with a wider national network television audience, more people than ever before will have an opportunity to share in this extraordinary celebration of academic excellence and experience the remarkable intensity of competitive spelling.”

“We are proud to bring the Scripps National Spelling Bee to ABC for the first time in its storied, 79-year history,” said Andrea Wong, ABC’s Executive Vice President, Alternative Series. “It’s exciting for us as a network to bring this competition of some of America’s brightest young minds to a broader audience.”

The Scripps National Spelling Bee, the nation’s largest and longest running educational promotion, is administered on a not-for-profit basis by Scripps and 268 local sponsors. The majority of local spelling bee sponsors are daily and weekly newspapers. The purpose of the Scripps National Spelling Bee is to help students improve spelling, increase vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all of their lives.

“The ABC primetime broadcast is the latest in a series of high-profile acknowledgments that the bee is growing in stature,” said Paige P. Kimble, director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee and 1981 national spelling champion. “The bee has been the subject of an Academy Award-nominated documentary, has served as backdrop to two critically acclaimed feature length films and has inspired a Tony Award-winning play that’s currently running on Broadway and is now touring the United States. For the championship spellers who gather in Washington every year, the attention focused on their high level of academic achievement is well-deserved.”

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is central to the storyline of Akeelah and the Bee, a feature-length film that is being released by Lions Gate Films, 2929 Entertainment and Starbucks Entertainment on Friday, April 28. The film, starring Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett and Keke Palmer, is a fictional account of an African American girl from Los Angeles who overcomes adversities to win the national spelling bee championship. The movie is being promoted in Starbucks Coffee locations nationwide.

In 2002, the Scripps National Spelling Bee was the subject of the documentary film, Spellbound, which was nominated for an Academy Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Also, spelling bees inspired the Tony Award-winning Broadway play, The 25th AnnualPutnamCounty Spelling Bee.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee, which is held each year in Washington D.C., will begin on Wednesday May 31, featuring top spellers from across the U.S. and including competitors from Europe, Guam, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, American Samoa, Canada and New Zealand. The opening rounds of the bee on May 31 are not televised, but real-time results are provided via the Internet at the bee’s official Web site, spellingbee.com.

About 275 champion spellers, ranging in age from 9- to 15-years-old, will be competing this year for the National Spelling Bee Championship. Spellers participating in the national competition qualify by winning locally sponsored spelling bees in their home communities.

About Scripps

The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) is a diverse and growing media enterprise with interests in national cable networks, newspaper publishing, broadcast television stations, electronic commerce, interactive media, and licensing and syndication.

The company’s portfolio of media properties includes: Scripps Networks, with such brands as HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living, Great American Country and HGTVPro; daily and community newspapers in 18 markets and the Washington-based Scripps Media Center, home to the Scripps Howard News Service; 10 broadcast TV stations, including six ABC-affiliated stations, three NBC affiliates and one independent; leading online search and comparison shopping services, Shopzilla and uSwitch; United Media, a leading worldwide licensing and syndication company that is the home of PEANUTS, DILBERT and approximately 150 other features and comics; and Shop At Home, which markets a growing range of consumer goods directly to television viewers in roughly 57 million U.S. households and online through www.shopathometv.com

Contact: Paige Kimble, Scripps National Spelling Bee, 513-977-3040
Email: bee@scripps.com

or

Mark Kroeger, The E. W. Scripps Company, 513-977-3827
Email: mwkroeger@scripps.com List of spellers in the 2006 bee: http://www.spellingbee.com/comp_spellers.asp The one speller to watch in this year's bee is speller 147. From New Jersey, Katharine Close, Asbury Park Press/Home News Tribune. Any thoughts on this year's bee and the move to prime time on ABC?

i was nine places away from making it to the 2003 national spelling bee. 26 places away from making it in 2000.

I don't think I was ever in a spelling bee. :o

I actually once finished third in a grade school spelling bee. I was a great speller as a kid. As an adult though, sometimes I forget how to spell my own name. :lol:

I Could never make it to a nationl spelling bee :( I was the worst speller in
3rd grade and flunked all my spelling test's
________
Body science (http://bodyscience.ws/)

I have become a huge fan of the bee. I recorded the bee on ESPN since 2004. Is any of you going to to bee next Wednesday and Thursday?

I actually once finished third in a grade school spelling bee.

I did too. Sixth grade.

I did too. Sixth grade.

Same with me! :woohoo:

I got second place in 5th grade. LOL

2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee begins May 31 in Washington, D.C.
(NYSE: SSP)
For immediate release
Fri, May 26, 2006
WASHINGTON – The 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee will begin Wednesday, May 31, in Washington, D.C., featuring top spellers from across the U.S. and including competitors from Europe, Guam, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, American Samoa, Canada and New Zealand.

The 275 champion spellers, ranging in age from 9 to 15 years old, will be competing for the Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship, which will be determined during the closing rounds of the competition Thursday, June 1. The spellers have qualified to compete in the national competition by winning locally sponsored spelling bees in their home communities. The national competition will be held in the Independence Ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Washington.

Live television coverage of the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee will be moving to primetime this year on the ABC Television Network. ABC will broadcast the championship rounds of the bee in high definition from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 1. Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts will host the ABC broadcast.

Preliminary championship rounds of the bee will air live earlier in the day on ESPN, which has televised the final rounds of the bee in their entirety since 1994. The ESPN broadcast is scheduled for noon to 3 p.m., EDT. SportsCenter anchor Chris McKendry will host the ESPN broadcast.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the nation’s largest and longest running educational promotion. The competition is administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company in Cincinnati and 268 local sponsors. The majority of local spelling bee sponsors are daily and weekly newspapers.

The purpose of the National Spelling Bee is to help students improve spelling, increase vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all of their lives. The program is open to students who have not reached their 16th birthday on or before the date of the national finals and who have not advanced beyond the eighth grade by Feb. 1, 2006.

The spelling bee is primarily an oral competition conducted in rounds until only one speller remains. The first round of the competition consists of a 25-word written test. Rounds One through Four will be held Wednesday, May 31. The championship rounds will be held on Thursday, June 1.

The National Spelling Bee word panel has compiled a list consisting of more than 1,000 words that will be used in the national competition.

All 275 competing spellers receive cash prizes that range from $25 to $20,000 for the national champion. All spellers receive a commemorative watch, the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, which consists of a $100 EE U.S. Savings bond, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, on CD-ROM from Merriam-Webster and a $20 gift certificate from Franklin Electronic Publishers. Franklin will award the top 10 to 12 finishers a limited edition electronic dictionary.

The national champion also receives an engraved loving cup, a $5,000 cash award from Franklin Electronic Publishers, a $5,000 cash award from LeapFrog Enterprises Inc., a $5,000 scholarship from Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation; from Merriam-Webster, a $2,500 U.S. Savings Bond and a reference library; and from Encyclopedia Britannica, reference materials valued at more than $5,000.

Biographies of this year’s spellers and information about the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee can be found online at www.spellingbee.com .

About Scripps

The E. W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) is a diverse and growing media enterprise with interests in national cable networks, newspaper publishing, broadcast television stations, electronic commerce, interactive media, and licensing and syndication.

The company’s portfolio of media properties includes: Scripps Networks, with such brands as HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living, Great American Country and HGTVPro; daily and community newspapers in 18 markets and the Washington-based Scripps Media Center, home to the Scripps Howard News Service; 10 broadcast TV stations, including six ABC-affiliated stations, three NBC affiliates and one independent; leading online search and comparison shopping services, Shopzilla and uSwitch; and United Media, a leading worldwide licensing and syndication company that is the home of PEANUTS, DILBERT and approximately 150 other features and comics.

List of spellers in the 2006 bee: http://www.spellingbee.com/comp_spellers.asp The one speller to watch, Number 147 from New Jersey. Katharine Close, Asbury Park Press/Home News Tribune. Check out a story about her from the Asbury Park Press: http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060525/NEWS/605250477&SearchID=73245753001275