Great Australian Spelling Bee

This year the top 36 young spellers in Australia have come to compete in The Great Australian Spelling Bee. All 36 will be spelling for a place in the Top 18. Sadly at the end of the episode only 18 Spellers will be going through into Episode Two, the remaining 18 will be leaving the competition. The Top 36 are super excited and make their way to the studio, where they make a grand entrance and are welcomed by Grant to The Great Australian Spelling Bee! They then head backstage to the Spellers room and are put into 9 age based groups of 4. The 1st group up we meet are Luca – games whiz kid, Alistair who wants to be a lyricist, Max B who loves curling up with a good book, & Asha who has brought along her air force Dad, and she wants to be an astronaut. The first round of spelling bee, everyone spells correctly. The second round, Asha, spells her word - “SEAFARER”, incorrectly and is sadly out of the competition. Next round Max spells his word “GRANDEUR” incorrectly. Next up is Alistair, who also spells his word “EMOTICON” incorrectly. That means if Luca spells his word correctly- he moves into the Top 18. Luca spells “ENSEMBLE” correctly – so he’s safe and through to the TOP 18. Now its between Max & Alistair – 2 buddies fighting it out. Max spells “TACITURN” incorrectly. So if Alistair spells his next word correctly he will be through to the top 18. It’s time for Alistair to spell. His word is “UPHEAVAL”. He spells it correctly and is through to the Top 18 with Luca. Unfortunately for Max he is no longer in the competition. We see highlights of more kids going through to the Top 18. Next group is of 10-year-old girls and includes; Katelyn from NSW, Quinn B from SA, Zoe from Queensland, who is a huge rugby fan, and Ava who is known as the human dictionary. Zoe & Ava get spell their words correctly, Katelyn loses out on the word “INSOLVENCY” and goes home, but is a good sport about it. Quinn gets out on the word “AGGREGATE” and also goes home. That means Ava & Zoe move through to the Top 18. This sees the start of a beautiful friendship between Ava & Zoe that continues through the whole series. We see more highlights of kids going through to the Top 18 then we set up our final group for the day. With only 2 spots left in the Top 18, its a tense battle for our youngest spellers, Zachary who is a speed speller, Rory, a delightful talkative science nut, Joel who loves cricket & Quinn M who has dreadlocks & is a rhythmical speller. The first round, Zachary & Rory spell correctly, but Quinn loses out on the word “OBSOLETE” and is the first to go home. Then the 3 boys left go head to head for a titanic 8 rounds of spelling bee, until Joel loses out of the word “ABEYANCE”. That means Zachary & Rory go through to the Top 18. !!!! We have our Top 18!!

Having made it through to the Top 18, our spellers arrive to the arena and find that it has been transformed into... Space! Planets, stars and a Mars Rover captivate the spellers. Chrissie is there – but where’s Grant? All is revealed when a moon buggy lurches forward, with Grant on board disguised as an astronaut. Grant sheds his space suit to tell the spellers that the challenge today is Show and Spell, with Space as the theme, and that the spellers are to compete in three teams of six. The teams are randomly picked with spellers divided into Red, Blue or Yellow, and then it’s on with Show and Spell. In this challenge the first letter, the number of letters and part of speech is given. A member from each team comes forward to try and identify the word from the clues, and if the word is identified and spelt correctly, verified by The Pronouncer, a point is awarded to that team. The challenge recommences with a new word and the next team member. The first two teams to get three points are safe with the bottom ranked team heading into the Spelling Bee, where two of six spellers will be going home. Zeke gets the Blue team off to a good start when he identifies and spells Constellation, then Max follows up with Astrophysics. Blue is on two points, only one point away from avoiding the Spelling Bee. Will gets Meteorite for Red and Ava gets Yellow on the board with Intergalactic. Zoe (Yellow) guesses Celestial as the next word, but she’s incorrect. Josie identifies it as Cosmonaut, taking Blue to three points and safety! Team Blue will not have to spell again today and are safely into the Top 16. Now, it’s Red versus Yellow. Beau gets Trajectory for Red; Arya counters with Syzygy for Yellow. The score is tied at two each. The next correct answer will avoid the Spelling Bee. Tristan just beats Faiza to the buzzer to get Satellite – he spells it correctly and Red are safely through to the Top 16. The Yellow team of Ava, Zoe, Arya, Hanna, Faiza and Luca must now face off in the Spelling Bee, and two spellers will be going home. Ava is first up and spells Decibel correctly. Hanna is next with Epicure; Faiza spells Inertia; Zoe gets Lantana; Arya spells Opacity and Luca finishes off Round One by spelling Rapport. Round Two continues until Faiza spells Audacity incorrectly – should two of Zoe, Arya and Luca spell their words correctly, Faiza is gone. Zoe spells Modifier then Arya gets Filament and it is all over for Faiza, who leaves happy that she has made a lot of friends. The Spelling Bee continues, with one more Speller to go home... Ava, Hanna and Zoe spell Excerpt, Camphor and Panacea before Arya gets Chiffon, an unfamiliar word. She guesses it starts with an S – incorrect. When Luca spells Augment correctly, Arya must leave the competition. Her father is very proud since her first language was Hindi. The remaining Spellers join the others – and all rejoice that they have survived the week and are now in the Top 16!

It is a brand new week on The Great Australian Spelling Bee and our Top 16 spellers eagerly anticipate the two new challenging rounds of spelling in the arena. As the spellers are randomly split into four teams of four - Blue, Green, Red and Yellow - they step onto the stage and are surprised to find a super-sized Spell Gate. The spellers are very keen to play the classic game of Speed Spell, but with a wider Spell Gate, they begin to excitedly speculate that there is an unexpected twist to the challenge. Grant announces that today’s first game is Speed Spell Relay. In this new variation of Speed Spell, the whole team will step into the spell gate and one by one, each speller will have a chance to spell a word. Every team will have 60 seconds to spell as many words correctly as they can. The top three teams to get the most number of correctly spelled words in the shortest time are safe with the bottom ranked team heading into the Spelling Bee, where two of four spellers will be going home. Team Blue is up first and the expectations are high for resident Spelling Speedster Zach - Speed Spelling is his forte, will that advantage give his team a boost? Jess, Zach, Rory and Hanna step into the Spell Gate and give a flawless performance, racing through tricky words and nailing 11 words in 56.32 seconds, setting a very high bar. Team Green also flies through their round with no mistakes, with 11 correct words but taking marginally more time at 56.61 seconds, coming in second after Team Blue. The pressure is now on Team Red to do well. As Team Red’s Alistair, James, Max and Josie step into the Spell Gate, there are plenty of nerves. Within seconds, Max misspells the word PARAKEET and leaves the Spell Gate, an error that shakes the whole team, leaving both Josie and James to stumble over their words - losing valuable time. Team Red end up with only 9 words in 56.15 seconds. It all comes down to Team Yellow - can they best Team Red’s score of 9 words to avoid the Spelling Bee? Luca, Beau, Tristan and Zeke try their best to be calm and measured - but Luca misspells TRAVERSE and it is now touch and go whether or not they will make it. As Grant reveals the final scoreboard, Team Red celebrate that they have just managed to get 10 correct words and safely enter the Top 14. Alistair, James, Max and Josie must now face off in the Spelling Bee, where two of them will go home. James is up first, spelling PARFAIT correctly. Max is next with AUSTERE; Alistair nails ONEROUS despite not having heard of the word and Josie finishes the first round flawlessly with COLLAGE. Round Two begins, and right out of the gate, James stumbles and falls on a word he didn’t know, ARTIFICE, spelling it with a misplaced E. This means that if two more spellers in the round spell correctly, then James will be leaving. Much to Max’s relief, he correctly spells CULPABLE - but this puts James one step closer to the end. Alistair is next to step up, and is given the word QUIXOTIC. He fumbles on his pronunciation as he struggles to spell the word, ultimately spelling it with an CS instead of an X. With both James and Alistair faltering, Max is now safe and through to the Top 14. It all comes down to Josie. If she spells her word correctly, both James and Alistair will leave the competition and she will be safe. With trepidation, Josie methodically spells out the word CLEMENCY and gets it correct, going through to the next stage of the competition. We bid a bittersweet farewell to James and Alistair with plenty of hugs and celebrate the Top 14 who survive to compete another week.

Our Top 14 spellers start the week with a lot of speculation about what the first challenge will be. After the random team pick, they are surprised to be paired in seven duos - with best friends Zoe and Ava facing the challenge together again - will their winning streak continue? As the spellers walk out onto the stage, they meander through giant white letters which reveal the name of the brand new challenge - Superword. In this challenge, a 9-letter grid is revealed and the spellers must find as many words as possible from the letters in the grid For every word found, the duos will win a point. If any team finds the Superword - a word containing all 9 letters - they are immediately safe. The first five teams to win 3 points are safe with the bottom two teams heading into the Spelling Bee, where two of the four spellers will leave the competition. The grid is revealed and the teams are studiously looking for viable answers. Zach and Luca are on team yellow, and buzz in first scoring one point on the leaderboard. Team Orange best friends Zoe and Ava buzz in next, spelling PRICES in unison and getting their first point. Team Green’s Hanna and Annie then get a point, followed by the rest of the teams all scoring a point. With all the teams even on the leaderboard with 1 point each, the pressure is on once again in the bid for safety. Team Pink gains ground with PIERCE, followed closely by Team Green’s SPREE and Team Orange’s POPES. When Annie buzzes in first again, Team Green gets their third point on the word SPIRE, sending Hanna and Annie straight into the Top 12. With just four more team safe spots up for grabs Team Orange team buzzes in with CREEP, sending besties Ava and Zoe into safety. Team Red gets their second point with POSER. Team Purple joins them with CREPES and as Josie buzzes in immediately again, she and Tristan win the third safe slot with the word COPES. With only 2 more team slots for safety up for grabs, tensions are running high. Team Yellow buzzes in, getting their second point with COPIER. Team Blue - follow closely behind and win their second point with POISE. The remaining four teams are now neck and neck, all on two points. Dynamic Duo Max and Rory on Team Pink are first to buzz in and win the penultimate slot with the word CREEPS. With only one place left, Zach and Luca on Team Yellow manage to buzz in and win the final safe spot with COPIES. Jessica, Beau, Will and Zeke must now go into the Spelling Bee, where two of them will leave the competition. Beau is up first, his word is ATTENDANT. Beau’s easy sense of confidence prompts him to rush through the spelling of the word, shocking everyone when he ends the spelling with a D instead of a T. In a split second, it is over, Beau has gotten his word incorrect and is now in jeopardy of leaving the competition. Jessica steps up next, a little shaken, she proceeds slowly and carefully, asking for the definition and taking her word one letter at a time, ultimately getting her word CAVERNOUS correct. It is now Zeke’s turn, if he gets his word correct, Beau is out of the competition. Zeke is given the word DEXTERITY, working through it methodically and nailing the spelling. We bid farewell to Beau as he says goodbye to the Great Australian Spelling Bee. The pressure is now on Will - as the last speller in the round, he must get his word correct to stay in the competition. The Pronouncer gives him the word CASSEROLE. The room is silent as Will works through the word, taking in a collective breath when he follows the double S with an A instead of an E. It is all over now for Will, but in his ironic way says he’ll still eat casserole, he just won’t spell it again! In just one round, the Spelling Bee has proven to be too much pressure for our young spellers. Beau has left the competition and now we say a sad goodbye to Will, but we also celebrate with Jessica and Zeke who are now officially in the Top 12.

Today we meet our Top 10 spellers hanging out in the Spellers Room, playing games and choosing teams of two for today’s challenge. Besties Zoe and Ava have been together in every team challenge so far and are keen to extend their lucky streak – but they end up separate today as Ava and speed demon Zach end up on Team Red and Zoe is paired with her other gal pal Annie on Team Blue. Good mates Tristan and Max are excited to pair up (Team Pink); Zeke is teamed with Jessica (Team Yellow) and Luca & Hanna are together as Team Green. The Spellers enter the arena and see the huge Spell Gate glowing. Zach fist-pumps the air... it’s Speed Spell! More specifically, Speed Spell Duos - spelling in their teams of two. Each team will step in the Spell Gate, with each Speller taking turns to spell a word. They must spell as many words correctly as they can in 60 seconds. If a word is spelt incorrectly the Speller must step out of the spell gate, while the other teammate continues. Today the 3 top-scoring teams will be safe, and the two bottom ranked teams will battle it out in the final Spelling Bee today, where two Spellers will go home. Team Blue is up first, stepping into the Spell Gate. Zoe is rubbing her lucky necklace nervously. The girls are off to a flying start, speeding through with no mistakes. They set the bar high for today with 11 words in 58.57 seconds. Next is Team Green, feeling the pressure after Team Blue’s high score. Luca has a stumble on TRICEPS, but they too manage to finish without any incorrect words! However with 10 words in 57.93 seconds they are in second place on the leader board. Next is Team Pink, Tristan and Max. Last time in Speed Spell Max stuffed up, saying speed spelling is “not his forte”, he is really hoping not to stuff up again and let his mate Tristan down. The boys are off with a great start, until Max misspells SUCTION, and steps out of the Gate, disappointed with himself. Tristan brings it home for the duo, but they only manage 8 words in in 52.97 seconds, putting them at the bottom of the Leader board. They’re still in with a chance... Teams Red and Yellow need to score lower, for Team Pink to avoid Spelling Bee? Before spelling, Red Team’s speedster Zach shares his secret tips with the audience, he warms up his tongue with tongue twisters and giving us a speedy demo, “Peter Piper picked a pickled pepper...” The room erupts with laughter. Red just need above 10 words to be safe. They’re off! Everyone can’t stop giggling as Zach’s motor mouth spells so fast! Ava does her best to keep up, before stumbling on RAMSHACKLE. They get 11 words like Team Blue, in 59.08 seconds. So they are also safe! Now it is all down to the Team Yellow – will they get a higher score than Team Green or will they be joining Team Pink in the Spelling Bee? Zeke and Jessica set a cracking pace, until Jessica stalls asking for the word OFFICIAL to be repeated. Team Yellow get 10 words, like Team Green, but they just scrape into the Top 3 as they did it 56.27 seconds! So Team Green’s Luca and Hanna are joining Tristan and Max in the Spelling Bee.

Having made it through to the Top 8, our spellers arrive to find the Spelling Arena empty apart from 4 buzzers – so, there is a challenge but what could it be? Suddenly the lights dim, smoke billows and a mysterious figure emerges... HANNA wonders if something is wrong and if “000” should be called but... it’s Laser Man! Laser Man blows the spellers’ minds with a laser and music show, picking up lasers and bending them with his bare hands. The spellers seem a little alarmed by the laser, ducking and dodging when it’s propelled in their direction. At the end of the performance AVA announces that Laser Man would be the new Great Australian Spelling Bee Super Hero. The new game Laser Letters is revealed and explained. The spellers are randomly paired into four teams – Yellow, Green, Red and Blue the aim of the game is to identify the misspelled word out of a group of four words – then spell it correctly to win a point. The first two teams to get to three points are safe; the other two teams will head to the final Spelling Bee... where two spellers will be leaving the competition. Incredibly the Yellow Team of AVA & ZOE are together again– for the 6th time in seven episodes! This prompts AVA to declare ZOE her “substitute twin” (she has a twin brother at home) and they announce that they are going to spell in unison. HANNA & TRISTAN get off to a good start, identifying IRRESISTABLE as misspelt When TRISTAN spells it correctly – IRRESISTIBLE – Team Red are on the leader board. Team Green are next on the board when they identify FLANELETTE as wrong. ZACH spells it – FLANNELETTE – with his trademark speed as his partner ANNIE looks along in amazement. The Pronouncer declares ZACH correct, and Team Green is also on the board. AVA & ZOE then identify AMBIANT should be spelt AMBIENT; ZACH & ANNIE get that SEQUACEOUS should be spelt SEQUACIOUS and HANNA & TRISTAN pick HYPERBOLAR as misspelt and should be HYPERBOLA. Now three teams have two points each – a point away from safety. Team Blue – JESS and ZEKE are still on zero... it’s going to be a battle for them to stay out of the Spelling Bee but they’re up for the challenge... Team Yellow, AVA & ZOE, are the first spellers safe when ZOE slams the buzzer when she sees MALESTROM appear. She’s right, it’s wrong but now she must spell it. AVA has no idea so it’s the end of unison spelling... ZOE is unsure but off she goes... MAELSTROM... AVA is unconvinced – but it’s correct! Team Yellow is the first team safe, and AVA & ZOE are in the Top 6! Only one more team will get through today, so it’s game on. The next words appear and Team Green are first to buzz in thinking that DECATHALON is spelt incorrectly. They’re right, then spell it correctly – DECATHLON - to win a point and become the second team safe. So with ZACH & ANNIE joining AVA & ZOE in the Top 6, JESSICA, ZEKE, HANNA and TRISTAN head to the final Spelling Bee where two spellers will be going home. TRISTAN is the first speller to the microphone and spells CONCENTRIC correctly. ZEKE then gets OMNIVOROUS right. HANNA’s up next and after a chat with GRANT about her next novel spells EMPATHETIC before JESSICA steps up, thinking and spelling her way through SCHEMATIC. Round 2 – and TRISTAN spells BROCCOLINI – something he’d prefer to spell rather than eat he tells GRANT. ZEKE has a mind-blank while spelling BINOCULARS but pulls it together. HANNA then steps up to spell SABBATICAL, which she needs to get right to stay in the competition. It’s not a word she’s familiar with and she starts out C...E... Oh no! That’s wrong! HANNA’s Great Australian Spelling Bee adventure is over but has inspired her to write a novel about her journey. Jessica completes the round by spelling CANDELABRA, a word she recognized from her “4 billion” trips to church, and then it’s onto Round 3. TRISTAN spells TRATTORIA then ZEKE confidently spells OSTEOPATH. JESSICA then spells SOLITAIRE, which she remembers as a game from her old computer and we’re through another round. TRISTAN’s up next – he spells INGENUOUS correctly. ZEKE gets the word ALLUVIUM. He doesn’t know it! The definition doesn’t help. He spells deliberately and hesitantly then waits nervously for The PRONOUNCER to say... “That’s correct!” ZEKE survives! JESSICA then must spell correctly to stay in the competition. The word is GUARANTOR and from the definition JESSICA works out that it is derived from guarantee and that gives her a clue. G...U...A...N – oh no! She’s forgotten the R and A... a simple mistake but it means it’s JESSICA’S time to leave the competition. She walks out proud of her efforts and declares that her Great Australian Spelling Bee medal will hang with her speed-walking ones, but just a little higher. TRISTAN and ZEKE survive another final Spelling Bee, joining AVA, ZOE, ANNIE and ZACH in the Top 6...

It is Finals Time on the GREAT AUSTRALIAN SPELLING BEE and our TOP 6 enter the Spelling Arena, excited to see what today’s challenge will be. It’s SUPERWORD and with six buzzers in place it means that this will be the first time the spellers compete in a challenge as individuals. SUPERWORD is a grid of 9 letters and the aim of the game is to find words of five letters or more, then spell that word correctly to score a point. Each word must include the letter D that’s in the centre square. Make a mistake and you’re locked out until the next round. Should a speller identify and correctly spell the SUPERWORD - a word that uses all 9 letters - they are safe. Otherwise the first two spellers to find and spell five words make it through to the Top 5. The bottom four spellers will go into the Final Spelling Bee and one speller will be going home. It’s game on and TRISTAN is first to discover a word – CIDER. He spells it correctly to get a point... ANNIE, AVA and ZOE follow, with DROLL, COLDER and COOLED, joining TRISTAN on the leader board. ANNIE is the first to two points when she gets CRIED, ZOE joins her with CODER and ZACH is on the board with DOCILE. Tristan then buzzes in with CROCODILE - he has found the SUPERWORD! To be safely in the TOP 5 he must spell it correctly. CROD...ODILE – he immediately realises he’s made a mistake and missed a great opportunity to be safe for this week. With TRISTAN locked out, and the SUPERWORD out there, the game is wide open for the quickest to buzz in & spell CROCODILE correctly. True to form, speedy ZACH is first on the buzzer. He “guesses” CROCODILE & spells it correctly. ZACH goes straight into the TOP 5 and is the first speller into the GRAND FINAL DECIDER! Only one more speller will be safe today, so the pressure is on... ANNIE identifies COILED then ZEKE finally gets on the scoreboard with DICER. ANNIE finds OILED and climbs to 4 points on the leader board, only one point away from safety. ZOE, ZEKE and TRISTAN then find OLDER, RODEO and IDLER, then ZOE joins ANNIE on 4 points when she guesses RICED... both ANNIE and ZOE need only one point to be safe. AVA takes a guess at LICED but it’s not a real word, then ZOE hits the buzzer and has a mind-blank before coming up with DOLCER. It’s also not in the Macquarie Dictionary and she’s locked out. TRISTAN goes to 3 points with CORED, then ANNIE buzzes in with COOED. Is this even a word? It is! ANNIE has reached 5 points and safety, joining ZACH in the TOP 5. This means the bottom four - ZOE, AVA, ZEKE and TRISTAN will go into the Final Spelling Bee where one speller will be going home...

Tonight on THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN SPELLING BEE, the penultimate episode: The Grand Final Decider! Of the TOP 5 spellers who have gotten this far, which four spellers will make it through to the Grand Final for 2016? As TRISTAN says, “we are at the business end” of the competition... the words are getting harder and the spellers left are the cream of the crop. Today, one speller will be leaving the competition and the spellers all feel sad, as they have grown so close. Last week, AVA’s best mate ZOE left the competition... she is really missing her and says she is going to spell her way to the Grand Final for her today. As the only two girls left, AVA and ANNIE are happy to have each other. The spellers race into the Arena full of excitement to see the familiar SPELL GATE. ZACH waves his fists in the air yelling “Yes! Yes!” - this is his favourite challenge! His speed spell record when practicing at home is 20 words in a minute. Will ZACH break his own speed record today? And can he maintain his clean slate of never spelling a word incorrectly in the entire competition? GRANT announces that the Challenge today is “SPEED SPELL SHOWDOWN”. For the first time they will be spelling as individuals in the SPELL GATE. TRISTAN is nervous as he thinks it will be harder without any team members to spell with. Expectations for ZACH are high, as the resident Speed Demon has no one to hold him back... Each speller has 60 seconds to spell as many words as they can. If they get a word incorrect, it’s time-up and game over. The top speller in this challenge wins the golden ticket straight through to the Grand Final... the remaining four will battle it out in the final Spelling Bee - their last chance to make it into the Grand Final. ANNIE is first up in the Spell Gate, and flies through her words. The other spellers watch in awe and worry she is setting the bar very high for them all. After a mind-blank on REGIONAL, ANNIE pulls herself together and gets 11 words in 54.07 seconds. Next up is hesitant TRISTAN, who is super focused. Surprising everyone, including himself, he races through and gets 11 words correct, exactly what he thought as he was counting at the same time he was spelling! TRISTAN’s time is 59.32 seconds, several seconds slower than ANNIE’s, so TRISTAN will head into his fourth final Spelling Bee in a row. ZEKE is aiming to knock ANNIE’s score out of the top spot, and in the SPELL GATE he amps up his speed while remaining ever-cool. He mows through the words and also manages to count how many words he gets correct - 12 words in 59.44 seconds! This puts ZEKE at the top of the Leaderboard and he is over the moon! With ZEKE now ahead of ANNIE she too will be joining TRISTAN in the Spelling Bee. All eyes are now on Speed Demon ZACH, including his dad in the audience who has told him not to go too fast today. There is only one speller who will go straight through to the Grand Final, and everyone thinks it will be ZACH. ZACH starts with his signature laser speed, on track to set a new record, until he slips up on SUBURBIA, spelling it SURBURBIA. The shock echoes through the Arena as ZACH and the crowd are crestfallen. This is the first word he has gotten wrong the entire competition. A disappointed ZACH steps out of the SPELL GATE, and tells GRANT he thinks he actually spelt too fast and he should have listened to his parents after all! Despite getting an unbelievable 10 words in 38.88 seconds, ZACH will be joining TRISTAN and ANNIE in the final Spelling Bee. AVA is the final Speller in the Speed Gate... can she beat ZEKE’s Top score of 12 and be safe? It is all down to her. AVA rips through her words as ZEKE nervously counts them on his hands. GRANT says she has ‘supersonic speed’. AVA gets 13 words in 57.32 seconds and beats ZEKE to be the lucky speller heading straight through to the Grand Final while ZEKE will join the others, spelling for his place in the Grand Final.

It’s the Grand Final and just four spellers remain. ANNIE, AVA, TRISTAN and ZACHARY are about to compete in the final two challenges to find out who will become the Great Australian Spelling Bee Champion for 2016. The top 4 run out onto the stage and are greeted by the top 18 who have returned to support their mates. Massive applause and high five’s for everyone! Grant reflects on the last 10 weeks ... 36 spellers arrived at the start, but today, only one will be crowned The Great Australian Spelling Bee champion for 2016. Grant tells the top 4 that their first challenge, Letter by Letter Knockout, is a challenge they have not yet faced. Over three rounds, each speller will contribute one letter to the spelling of a word. If a speller gets the letter wrong, they are out of the round. The last speller standing in each round will be safe, and will compete in the ultimate Spelling Bee ... and for the first time in the competition that’s exactly where the spellers want to be. This Spelling Bee won’t decide who’s going home, but will determine who will be crowned The Great Australian Spelling Bee champion for 2016. GRANT reveals the prizes for the RUNNERS UP – ZACHARY lights up when he hears that it’s a Lenovo tablet and $10, 000 prize money for their future education. After 2 rounds of Letter by Letter, ANNIE and ZACHARY are through to the Ultimate Spelling Bee, leaving TRISTAN and AVA to fight it out. AVA is left struggling to spell INTELLIGIBILITY and says the letter A instead of an I, resulting in her departure from the competition. She holds her head up high and is very proud of herself for getting so far in the competition. The top 3, ANNIE, TRISTAN and ZACHARY, now face off against each other in The Ultimate Spelling Bee, where the last one standing, will take home the trophy! After 6 intense rounds of Spelling Bee, ANNIE spells the word MENAGERIE incorrectly, leaving her future in the competition in the hands of ZACHARY. If he spells his next word correctly, she is out of the competition. ZACHARY has to spell the word ANCILLARY, which he seems to struggle with, debating whether it’s an E or an A. Luckily for ZACHARY, but unlucky for ANNIE, he spells it correctly! Sadly, it is ANNIE’s time to leave the competition. Now, two best friends, ZACHARY and TRISTAN are left ... to face off for the ultimate prize. Both TRISTAN and ZACHARY are on fire, spelling every word correctly, racing through every round. Finally, round 9, ZACHARY is dealt with a word that he has not heard of before, IMPRESARIO. He gets the word wrong by spelling it with a C instead of an S, leaving it all up to TRISTAN, who needs to get his next word correct to become the winner, and take home the trophy that he so desperately wants to put in his room. The word is CENTRIFUGE and after TRISTAN spells it there is a sense of uncertainty and an enormous amount of suspense. Finally, the pronouncer says “correct”. TRISTAN takes home the title off The Great Australian Spelling Bee champion! Receiving a whopping $50,000, a Lenovo Yoga tablet and the ultimate Spelling Bee trophy. Tristan is beside himself and can’t contain his excitement. GRANT praises ZACHARY – he is one of the top two spellers in the country. ZACHARY says that he is glad he has a friend like TRISTAN and that he deserves the title. SIGID (TRISTANS dad) and the top 18 spellers come out on to the stage and celebrate TRISTANS win.

The Grand Final is just one day away and we have just eight spellers remaining. Eight year old Harpita is the youngest. At 12, Harrison is our oldest competitor. Six spellers will go through to the grand final. Grant announces that there will be three challenges today with the two winners of each challenge going into the grand final. The first challenge is “Show and Spell”. A buzzing sound fills the studio and a few moments later bee piñatas fall from the ceiling. There are letters inside the piñatas that our spellers will retrieve with a traditional thwack. The first two spellers to reach two points will earn a place in the grand final. Harpita is the first to hit a piñata. She gets the letter N. There’s no category this week so listening to the clues is more important than ever. Harrison and Anirudh buzz in but they are wrong. Mica guesses and spells the word necessitate correctly. Amelia is next up. Her piñata contains the letter F. Anirudh once again buzzes in too early. Mica guesses and spells the word fortuitous correctly and becomes the first spellers through to the grand final. Anirudh retrieves the letter A. This time Marko wins a point when he correctly guesses and spells aerodynamic. Harrison gets the letter P. He buzzes in far too early again. Amelia takes advantage of his mistake and correctly spells and guesses the word portfolio. Peyton’s piñata contains the letter T. Annirudh correctly guesses and spells therapeutic. Three spellers – Amelia, Anirudh and Marko - are just one point away from a grand final spot. Grace whacks her piñata and comes up with the letter S. As soon as the announcer says the word is of German origin, Peyton buzzes in and incorrectly guesses schnitzel. Amelia waits until she knows that the word is a breed of dog. She correctly guesses schnauzer but she is unable to spell the word. Anirudh wins the battle of the buzzers. Be he too spells the word incorrectly. Marko then buzzes in. He spells the word correctly to become our second grand finalist. The next challenge is “Letter by Letter”. Contestants play two rounds. They must spell a word one letter at a time. When they make a mistake, they’re out of the game. The last speller standing goes into the grand final. Harrison edges out Harpita in the first round. In the second round, Harpita is again the runner up. This time Anirudh is the winner. Annirudh and Harrison are through to the grand final. There are just two spots remaining and they will be decided in a traditional spelling bee. Our spellers are Amelia, Peyton, Grace and Harpita. Peyton is the first to be eliminated when she misspells acrimony in round 4. Amelia is next to slip up in round 7 when she misspells susceptible. Grace has already spelled her seventh round word correctly so she’s straight into the grand final. Harpita will join her if she can correctly spell bruschetta. She succeeds and our two youngest spellers clinch the last two grand final places.

After six weeks and thousands of applicants, we’ve finally arrived at 2015’s grand finale of ‘The Great Australian Spelling Bee.” Tonight with the returning top twenty-six watching on our six finalists will battle if out for the title of Australia’s best speller. Anirudh, Grace D, Harrison, Mica, Marko and Hapita must draw on everything they’ve experienced up until this point in order to make it through to the final Spelling Bee in which two will enter and be crowned. The finale will take place over three rounds with two spellers being knocked out in each. The first round will be “Speed Spell” but no ordinary one. This week the contestants will have a choice of categories for each of their spells ranging from food to geography. In order to decide the order of spelling as well as the order of picking their respective categories the finalists partakes in a new challenge, “Dictionary Dash.” As the pronouncer gives a word the spellers must locate it and highlight it in a Macquarie dictionary before spelling and defining the word. The first person each round wins their spot in the order of “Speed Spell.” Following “Speed Spell” the spellers will face off in knock-out round of “Letter-By-Letter.” Get a letter wrong and you’re knocked out of the competition. This leaves us with our final two spellers in an epic spell-off after which one will be anointed “The Great Australian Spelling Bee” champion for 2015.