Two Michigan Spellers Advance To National Spelling Bee Semi-Finals

I'm a geek for the National Spelling Bee, the finals of which air in prime time tonight on ESPN.   I love it for its simplicity; a kid stands up, is given a word, and they can either spell or they can't.

Two of the semi-finalists battling for a spot on tonight's show are from Michigan.  Go Hannah!  Go Neha!

You can watch the semi-finals online now at ESPN.

Still alive in the competition and representing the Wolverine State are Neha Seshadri of Novi, and Hannah Jackson of Saginaw. They are among the final 45 out of 281 spellers who started out yesterday morning.

Unfortunately, Rebecca Tran from Grand Rapids went out in the preliminary round.

The championship round will air tonight (Thursday May 29) from 8pm-10pm on ESPN.

Writer Shonda Rhymes (Grey's Anatomy, Scandal) is also a huge fan and is live blogging the semi-finals at the entertainment blog, Throwing Things.  If you hit the refresh button, you can be updated without having to watch the video stream.

Shonda's coverage is unique in this respect: she gets emotionally attached to some of the contestants, and her pain is evident when they get eliminated. She also has covered the event for so long, she has each contestants track record ready to go.  It's an entertaining read.

As for me, I'm a crappy speller.  My experiences in Spelling Bees more closely follow Comedian Brian Regan's.