National Spelling Bee 2010 - Anamika Veeramani of Ohio wins among winners; TV influences Bee

Neetu Chandak, 14, of Seneca Falls, N.Y., smiles after spelling her word "sederunt" correctly, in the semifinals of the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, on Friday, June 4, 2010. The winner was a 14-year-old from Ohio, Anamika Veeramani. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).

National Spelling Bee 2010 - Anamika Veeramani wins among winners; TV influences Bee - Fourteen-year-old Anamika Veeramani may have won the Scripps National Spelling Bee for 2010, but there were lots of winners in the Independence Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Friday night - in fact, every competitor in the National Bee has to have won at least one or two other Bees before qualifying for Washington, D.C..  ABC broadcast the competition finals live on its television network, but perhaps it did not catch all of the star quality in the room.  YA Pop Culture was there to see what it's really like at the Bee when the cameras aren't rolling.

The first thing one notices a few minutes before air time is that the scene is not one you would expect to see on television.  Few people are in their seats in Independence Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt.  Crew and officials are busy talking, walking around, and working.  Judges are conferring.  The young spellers, some of whom are sporting blue ribbons, are getting each other to fill out the trivia questions set up in their chubby "Bee Keepers" notebooks given out by Scripps to help them get to know one another. 

Many have clearly set a goal of asking all 273 spellers the answers to their individual trivia questions (The questions are like "Neetu [pictured above, Semifinalist Speller #155] takes lessons in both tap and ___ dance.").  Many are also asking for the autographs of judges and Scripps staff, who are pictured in the back of the Bee Keeper.  Will the stage and audience settle down by 8:00 p.m. ET airtime?  Amazingly, they do.

Seven former spelling champions are in attendance, we are told by the 1981 champ, Paige P. Kimble, who wears a headset and will cue us when we need to applaud for television.  She introduces us to the former champs, and several of them (except for last year's 2009 winner) are officiating at this year's Bee.  She warns us that the coverage will try our patience at times, that the Bee will start and stop according to ABC's commercial breaks, sometimes at inopportune times.

Pressure - from Spelling or Spelling on TV?

The audience in the ballroom does not hear most of what announcer Chris Harrison (of The Bachelor) and interviewer Erin Andrews (from ESPN and Dancing With the Stars) say to the camera.  Occasionally, they do, and they respond with laughter.  Even though you are there in person, the silence is strange, and you feel as though you're watching a combination of a live event and a show on television with the sound off.

One early source of confusion for observers was that 10 spellers appeared on ABC's nationally televised program, although the audience in the room was notified that Round 6 of the Semifinals was not completed that afternoon (the afternoon rounds were broadcast live on ESPN).  Round 6 would need to be completed first on Friday evening before the Finals could begin.  This may have made it appear for viewers at home that all the remaining spellers on the primetime televised program were official Finalists, when those at the beginning of the program were actually Semifinalists completing Round 6. 

At the end of that round, 2 more spellers were eliminated, leaving 8 Finalists competing in Round 7.  The fact that some of the semifinalists made it to the televised broadcast, which was initially set up just to show the Finals of the competition, made that aspect of the Bee seem unfair, or at least confusing, to some.   

The issue above, however, is clarified by the Contest Rules.  Under Rule #2: "Format," it reads:

"The semifinals consist of rounds of oral spelling and will likely be concurrent with the competition's live broadcast on ESPN on Friday, June 4, 2010.  If the ESPN broadcast concludes during a semifinal round, spellers who have not spelled in the round will advance to the championship finals for the conclusion of the last semifinals round.

The championship finals consist of rounds of oral spelling and are concurrent with the competition's live broadcast on ABC on Friday, June 4, unless the ABC broadcazst begins in a round that began during the semifinals.  The championship finals will not officially commence until the last semifinals round has concluded, and prizes will be awarded accordingly.

Given this statement, it appears that the event proceeded according to the contest's official rules.  However, in ABC's broadcast, it is technically incorrect (in terms of the official competition) to announce the 10 spellers on the stage at the beginning of the broadcast all as "Finalists."

On the evening of the primetime broadcast, surprisingly, the spellers walk to the microphone on cue; they are not announced by name or number.  There is a large screen visible to the audience depicting the speller's name and information.  If the speller misses, there are collective sighs of sympathy in the audience.  The Finalists have come so far, only to miss a word in the home stretch.  The audience is not shown the correct spelling of the word until after the speller has gotten it either correct or incorrect; a running tally of the words and the way the spellers spell them shows on another large screen in the room.

Often, just when the tension for the next speller grows, ABC cues for a commercial or to run a feature piece.  Most people watching the Bee at home do not get the sense that the live telecast is controlling the timing of the Bee, but it does.  Friday night, it even controlled the very ending of the Bee.  Ms. Veeramani had to wait for ABC's delay after spelling the second to last word correctly ("juvia") before she could have the chance to spell the final word, "stromuhr," correctly that clinched her the title.  That wait must have been interminable for her.  In fact, in her interview with Erin Andrews afterwards, she cited the commercial breaks as one of the most pressure-filled aspects of the experience.

During breaks, the spellers almost all leave their seats and join their families for water and support at the other side of the stage.  Occasionally, two makeup artists dab oil from the spellers' adolescent faces or brush on some powder or dab on a bit of lip gloss.  The spellers and audience are cued to return to their seats a few seconds before the show comes back.  In one instance, a finalist in the front row barely made it back in time.

While the spellers wait to spell, a man squats down and shoots a camera up at their faces as they sit in their seats.  He pans around them and shoots below them while they are talking during some of the breaks.  The spellers appear to be aware of, but not particularly bothered by, the cameras, except when the camera appears to focus on one speller individually, and especially when that speller is waiting his/her turn to go up to the microphone.

One of the reasons why spellers who have competed in the National Spelling Bee previously may perform better (a majority of the finalists were there for their 2nd or 3rd National Bee) may not be only because of the experience or pressure of competition.  Clearly, seeing the events before and how they unfold during the live telecast gives a speller an advantage.  The nerves one sees seem every bit as tied to the live broadcast as they are to the words the contestants will have to tackle next.  In fact, an observer gets the impression that the spellers are more nervous about the cameras than the words - the words are the world they come from and know - the words are what they have studied. 

Nerves, however, don't get a room full of winners down.  The children rise to the challenge and perform.  Most importantly, amidst the lights, cameras, and action, they appear to realize that the important thing is what Mrs. Veeranami, the winner's mother, said to reporters after the Bee.  It is the advice she gave her daughter throughout her 6+ years of various spelling bee competitions:  "What you get out of the experience is more important than the outcome."

[Photo, bottom: Laura Newcombe, 11, of Toronto, Canada, reacts on missing the word, "confiserie" in the finals at the 2010 National Spelling Bee in Washington, on Friday, June 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)]

SEE ALSO:

National Spelling Bee 2010 winner, Anamika Veeramani, says winning word was one 'I studied before'

National Spelling Bee 2010 announces 49 semifinalists - complete list

National Spelling Bee 2010 enters second day - rounds 2, 3

National Spelling Bee 2010 kicks off in Washington, D.C.

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Connie Ann Kirk is a published author of 10 books and holds a Ph.D. in English. She is currently working on a novel and a screenplay.  See all of Connie's Arts & Entertainment columns at these pages: National Books on Film Examiner , National Literature Examiner, and National Young Adult Pop Culture Examiner .  Feel free any time to also check out her website.

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