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TEN spells out The Great Australian Spelling Bee

TEN's mystery entertainment format for quarter three is a mystery no more.

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No singing, dancing, cooking or renovation in sight on TEN’s newest format to be unveiled: The Great Australian Spelling Bee, featuring kids from across the country.

The announcement ends speculation on the third quarter show TEN had teased at its Upfronts last year.

“The Great Australian Spelling Bee is an exciting, engaging new series and a perfect fit with our strategy of bringing event television to Australians,” TEN program chief Beverley McGarvey said.

“Surrounded by their friends and loved ones, we will see Australia’s brightest young people put through their paces as they inspire and surprise us. And we will cheer them on.”

TEN Head of Drama, Rick Maier, worked with Shine Australia to develop the original format.

“Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest,” he said. “And the simplest ideas are the most exciting.”

Mark Fennessy, CEO, Shine Australia, said: “We are delighted to be bringing this original and exciting format to TEN. By super-sizing spelling to a hyper-stylised, entertainment family event, we’ll present the universal art of problem solving on the grandest of scales.

“Viewers will be inspired and enthralled by Australia’s most remarkable spellers among the jeopardy and drama of big event television. For these young people, everything is on the line.”

Last week a casting call went out seeking kids aged 8 – 13 who love words, definitions and grammar.

Hosts said to be under consideration include Chrissie Swan, Grant Denyer and Carrie Bickmore.

TEN previously screened Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? produced by Roving Enterprises from 2007 to 2009.

Photo: stock image

58 Responses

  1. A kids spelling show = no thanks

    An adults spelling show = yes please, and that is called Letters and Numbers (currently airing on SBS weekdays, at 5.30pm. In repeat zone, as sadly, no more seasons are to be made)

      1. You two should pitch that comedy routine to Ten. They certainly could do with any help you’d care to give them.

        Perhaps it’s you who hasn’t looked at the ratings closely enough. This year Ten have mostly been a distant 4th (both the main channel and the network). Occasionally they sneak in front of the ABC but equally they also rate under 10% on some nights. And Ten’s reality shows, do you mean I’m a Celeb that rated a million less than Seven’s MKR?

        Ten are in trouble and are desperate as this laughable commissioning indicates. They deserve to be called out for stupid decisions.

  3. Wouldn’t it be great if Ric Maier,Ten’s head of drama, worked on developing some local dramas and not some unoriginal entertainment format known in many forms all over the world. You almost feel sorry for Ten’s shareholders. Its Board and management doesn’t have a clue. Something really has to happen fast at Ten or it will just slide into oblivion. Perhaps oblivion followed by a rebirth is all that is possible.

    2. Actually earlier this year, TEN did say they were talking to Denyer about primetime shows for 2015 and 2016. Maybe its him, otherwise then there might be another show on the horizon

  5. Leave grant to family feud and Carrie to the project. Give it to chrissie. Or one of the reporters from totally wild for something totally original

    2. you want Grant Denyer to be bored? i’d rather Grant then Chrissie. Ten need to use Grant more and more. Maybe Ten should give Grant this job and a whole lot of others that I can think of.

  6. I’ve been thinking since i read this, this morning. This isn’t original. Its been done before. When i hear original i think of something that hasn’t been done before. IMO Ten have mislead us. I was expecting something totally different.

  7. Can I also point out a massive contradiction. Maier says “Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest”. Then Fennessy, goes on to say “By super-sizing spelling to a hyper-stylised, entertainment family event, we’ll present the universal art of problem solving on the grandest of scales”.

    Huh? So to keep it simple, you’re going dramatically over the top with “the jeopardy and drama of big event television”? I’m confused.

    Then there’s “For these young people, everything is on the line”. Everything? Really? Everything? These kids are going to be 8-13 years old. In my opinion, no child of that age should have enormous pressure heaped on them in front of a national tv audience. This isn’t in the spirit of a “simple” spelling bee. Sorry, but I’m out.

    1. The competitiveness in the U.S. similar spelling bee versions is horrendous. I am all for expanding the vocab e.g. Secret Squirrels use of execrable hereunder, but the obscure words thrown at children in later series/rounds of the U.S. bees are crazy. I am still waiting for the entire population to be good on their/they’re/there.

  8. As soon as I started reading this article I thought straight away “Are you smarter than a fifth grader”, I don’t mean to sound negative as I like Ch Ten but I really do not see this working for them bad decision I must say, should’ve tried a reboot of Australian Idol or something to compete with 7’s-X Factor or 9’s Voice…oh well justsaying’

  12. I was on the verge of buying into it until i read the words “super-sizing”, “hyper-stylised”, “jeopardy”, “drama”, “big event television”.

    Here’s a tip, don’t try and make it into something it’s not. This kind of show needs charm and elegance, especially when dealing with children. Did the awful Voice Kids teach Shine nothing?

    And it’s not an original format as written in the article. “Spelling Bee” was the first ever live television game show, broadcast in the UK in 1938.

          1. jezza…to be more specific, a format is original if there is a key element that distinguishes it from other shows in a similar genre. The judging chairs that turn around is a simple but clever ‘mechanical’ that helps distinguish a show and it’s format. Clearly, as time goes on, the struggle to create the ‘new’ gets harder however, broadcasters are generally quite conservative and would tend to pick up a lukewarm concept from OS rather than necessarily go with something completely new. I hope TEN can move into the latter area soon..and wisely.

      2. The “simplest idea” of kids on a stage competing in a spelling bee sounds remarkably like the 1938 show. Adding super-sized hyper-stylised forced jeopardy (i.e. an ominous drone soundtrack, some lame sound effects, a shiny floor, whizz bang lights and some XX’s Got Talent style backstory) doesn’t make it any different in it’s base format. If anything they will be simply re-packaging the format of every other talent show around the genre of a spelling bee. Sorry, but what 10 and Shine are doing cannot be considered original in either format or genre.

        By the way, ESPN and ABC (US) broadcast the Scripps National Spelling Bee and the ABC (US) also ran a “big drama, jeopardy filled” show Spell-maggedon in 2013.

        1. How do you know what the variations are in gameplay to claim it is not an original format? Casting notice indicates spelling is one part of a show bringing in grammar and language. We also don’t know what it planning in terms of gameplay. There might be audience participation, syntax, risk and jeopardy, teams. I suspect it will be a variation of the traditional spelling bee in the same way as Million Dollar Minute is a variation of Sale of the Century. In TV language both are original formats.

  19. Why are comments about what 10 so negative, just give them a chance. At least they are trying something different and not the same format 3 or 4 times a year like the block and all those reno shows. At least watch it when it airs and then give your opinions and not before.

      1. Rumour has it The Block is out for Q4.. how’s that for foresight?..
        Apparently 6 cycles of Renovation across 7 and 9 in one year wasn’t good foresight.
        Something new is refreshing.

    2. Andrew, I take your point and in some ways I think you are right. However, I still observe quite a gap between certain broadcaster decisions and what their audiences keep telling them. A hotchpotch of choices seemingly at random is worrying. I personally hope TEN can turn itself around and return to it’s heyday but as a brand, what is TEN these days? You could define TEN a couple of decades ago by way of it’s high level productions and rich layers of offerings. It’s lost its brand core for some reason and is struggling to find itself again.

    3. The comments are negative because this is an execrable idea but from the publicity blurb you’d think that Ten had just invented Survivor.

      I don’t envy the position that Ten are in, altho’ it is mostly of their own doing, and I don’t have The Answer but I know that this isn’t it.

  20. Not what i was expecting at all. It could work but if its going to be TEN’s big hope i’m not sure. Especially if they plan to air it every day like Masterchef and I’m a Celebrity. This sort of show can get boring very very quickly but you never know. I was just expecting……more.

  23. If this is a success then I will be astonished. The question now is – will a spelling bee save Channel 10?
    …I was hoping for some comedy though, Seems that won’t be happening.

    1. “…I was hoping for some comedy though,…”
      Just read what Beverley McGarvey apparently said. “Event television” – that’s comedy cold right there!

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