Mina Kimes on the 'big game feel' of the Scripps National Spelling Bee

Transcript

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Amna Nawaz: Well, the tournament to crown the nation’s top speller is almost here.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee begins tomorrow in Washington, D.C., bringing together 247 finalists from all 50 states. These spellers emerged from millions of competitors across the nation, all dreaming that this moment from last year could be theirs.

Man: Your word is Eclaircissement.

Faizan Zaki, Spelling Bee Winner: Eclaircissement. E-C-L-A-I-R-C-I-S-S-E-M-E-N-T. Eclaircissement.

Woman: That is correct.

(Cheering)

Amna Nawaz: And this year, the 101-year-old competition has a new host, ESPN senior writer and NFL analyst Mina Kimes, who I spoke with recently.

Mina Kimes, welcome to the “News Hour.” Thanks for joining us.

Mina Kimes, Host, Scripps National Spelling Bee: Thanks for having me.

Amna Nawaz: So we have been promised a revamped version of the bee that you’re going to be hosting. What does that look like? Tell us about that.

Mina Kimes: Yes, I’m so excited to be joining the broadcast this year.

Embassy Row, who produces “Jeopardy,” which I was just on, it’s how I got to know them, is producing it for the first time. And I think with my addition, the goal is to give the bee a big game feel. I come from sports, and when I watch the National Spelling Bee, to me, it feels like an incredible sporting event.

These are elite competitors. They deserve to be treated as such and celebrated. And that’s what I really hope to do with all of this. I think that’s what our broadcast hopes to do, is just get everybody invested really quickly in the competition, and then really place an emphasis on that winning moment at the end.

Amna Nawaz: The bee winner, we should note here, gets $50,000 in a cash prize. They get a medal. They get the Scripps Cup, which is the official trophy of the National Spelling Bee, with some other prizes.

And you have described the bee as having a Super Bowl quality to it. Tell me about that. What are the similarities between the NFL athletes you cover and some of these spellers?

Mina Kimes: There’s a lot of similarities, and that’s been really reinforced to me as I have been doing my prep, watching past spelling bees.

One thing that I find so impressive about these kids, other than their composure, which is certainly a parallel to elite athletes playing on the biggest stage, is the level of preparation and how that shines when they’re solving words.

And I want to emphasize the word solving, because I think sometimes, with spelling, we assume it’s just memorization, and obviously that is a big part of it for these kids. But on stage, when you really pay attention to the questions they ask and how they’re reacting to them when they have their back-and-forth with the pronouncer, you realize, oh, this isn’t just memorization.

They are solving puzzles on stage by gathering information and then thinking back to everything they know about etymology and how words are used in sentences and patterns. And I think that’s really cool and something I really want to highlight.

So drawing that comparison again, it’s the preparation, it’s the composure, and it’s rising to the occasion in such a pressure-filled moment, especially, right, for someone who is under the age of 15.

Amna Nawaz: And what about for you as the host? I mean, you mentioned you’re watching past bees. What else are you doing to prepare?

Mina Kimes: Working on my own pronunciations of the names. So, mercifully, I’m not pronouncing the words for everybody involved. That’s a good thing. That is probably the single most important job at the spelling bee.

Jacques Bailly does it. He is amazing. But I will be pronouncing and introducing a lot of these kids. There’s over 200 of them at the very beginning. By the championship, it gets winnowed down. But the way I view it is that they have done so much preparation leading to this moment. And for some of them, it’s going to be moments on television that they’re going to look back at forever.

And so I really want to rise to that occasion myself and make sure not only that I say their names correctly, but I give them their due for getting this far. And I want to highlight their stories on stage.

Amna Nawaz: And we should mention too you’re coming to this with some degree of familiarity, not necessarily at this level, but you yourself were a spelling bee champ in elementary school. You competed as a child. So you have some sense of what it is they’re going through.

Tell me about how that plays into how you’re going to host and if that was a happy memory for you, or are there like words that still haunt you to this day?

Mina Kimes: I would say that comparing me as a second elementary school, I won a few bees growing up, to these kids is like comparing a guy sitting on his couch watching the NFL to Patrick Mahomes.

(Laughter)

Mina Kimes: They are so much better at spelling than I ever was.

And, in fact, watching them, it kind of makes me realize how far I had to go to get to their level. But I did love spelling growing up. I did get to compete in some spelling bees. One of my favorite memories is here in Los Angeles. I live here now in L.A., but I actually was an elementary school student in San Pedro.

And I won the San Pedro second grade city spelling bee. And the thing I remember most about that moment, other than my word, which was receive, which is quite easy, but I’m the second grader, was the trophy that I got. And I sent the spelling bee folks a picture of that, because the trophy, and this is what I remember, was about half the size of my own body at the time. So I was very excited to get it.

(Laughter)

Amna Nawaz: So you have a little bit of sense of what these kids are going through on a different scale.

If you had one piece of advice to give to these kids before they step out on that stage, what would it be?

Mina Kimes: I think the kids have the knowledge and the preparation and they certainly don’t need my advice when it comes to the spelling part of it or the problem-solving.

But another big part of this is being on stage and that is something I have a little bit more experience with being on live television. And I think — I know that, for a fact, actually, that some of these kids prepare in terms of learning how to calm themselves and breathe.

But I do really think that’s so essential to being able to access your preparation and your memories in those moments is taking the time to breathe and figuring out what calms you on stage, because that ultimately leads to the best result.

Amna Nawaz: That is ESPN senior writer and NFL analyst Mina Kimes joining us tonight.

Mina, it’s such a pleasure to talk to you. Good luck.

Mina Kimes: Thank you.

Amna Nawaz: Remember, there’s always a lot more online, including a lightning round Q&A with National Spelling Bee host Mina Kimes. That is on our YouTube page.