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Anirudh wins The Great Australian Spelling Bee 2015

A nine year old with the smarts wins TEN's pint-sized Reality contest.

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Nine year old schoolboy Anirudh, 9, from Victoria has won TEN’s Great Australian Spelling Bee.

He spelled his way through a lexicon of words last night to win the title, after 10 rounds against 8 year old Grace from New South Wales.

His prizes included $10,000 cash and $50,000 towards his education, a Macquarie Dictionary and the inaugural trophy.

“I need to rub my eyes and see if this is a dream,” he said. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Real. I can’t describe it. It’s like the best day of my life.”

10 year old Mica from NSW finished in third place, followed by Harrison, 12, from Victoria, Harpita, 8, from Victoria and 11 year old Marko from New South Wales.

But the words in the Grand Final were dastardly including Anthropomorphism, Ratatouille, Continuum, and Conscientiousness, with even Pronouncer Chris Edmund stumbling.

TEN has already announced the show is renewed for 2016.

16 Responses

  1. This show was a delightful surprise for me. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I think what made it so entertaining was the kids’ personalities, from cheeky and confident Grace, to the amazing smile that Mica had when she did well, to the helpfulness and support that Anirudh gave the others.

    And the friendly rivalry between the twins made for some fun television too.

    That was the surprise for me. Who knew spelling could be fun?!?

    Well done to all the contestants. And thank you for a great show.

  2. Fantastic show and even though i was team Mica it didn’t matter who won. These kids are genius’s and they really support each other throughout the whole series. Congratulations to Anirudh too. It’s not easy to spell. Half the words on the show i’ve gone huh? Glad its been renewed for a 2nd season too. Would love an adult version too.

  3. This wasn’t a show for me so I didn’t watch, but I’m really impressed by how well this wholesome form of family entertainment has performed without any controversy. Well done to all the kids!

  4. I’m sending Grace a Pixar boxset right now!

    [Indian kids have won the US Scripps National Spelling Bee for the past decade, so if you’re a betting person there’s a tip for next year]

  5. Hopefully they can take away a couple of lessons .. Use Chrissy Swan more productively instead of her mother hen/eye candy role far less of the to camera recaps and actually show all the words being spelt – and go for 630 Sunday – even better make it are you smarter than a 5th grader format and then you could sustain a longer run

    1. Yes I would watch it branched out to general trivia with a variety of rotating formats. It’s great to see cynicism-free positive comments for this story

    1. Yes, those words in the elimination round of the Grand Final were ridiculously hard.
      Most adults would have no idea how to spell them !
      Understandable that even these impossibly bright kids who had done so well up until now struggled and stumbled over the words .
      Really thought Grace would win but even she was stumped.
      Congrats to Anirudh though.

      Have really enjoyed Spelling Bee – such a lovely bunch of kids who tried their very best and supported each other so wonderfully.

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