ESPN to Present Live Coverage of 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee

ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and the ESPN app will combine to present more than 15 live hours of the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee, presented by Kindle, from National Harbor, Md., on May 31 and June 1. This is the 90th Annual SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE and ESPN's 24th straight year of televising the finals.

The ESPN app will exclusively carry all preliminary rounds live on Wednesday, May 31, beginning at 8 a.m. ET. Live coverage of the Finals will begin on Thursday, June 1, at 10 a.m. ET on ESPN2, ESPNU (Play Along Version) and the ESPN app. The Finals competition will conclude on ESPN, ESPNU (Play Along Version) and WatchESPN at 8:30 p.m.

The multiple choice Play Along channel returns for a fourth year, giving fans a one-in-four chance to pick the correct spelling of the given word, allowing fans to compete along with the spellers. This year, on June 1, the Play Along channel will also include Twitter voting on the four multiple choice options. The Play Along version will also feature informational boxes highlighting the word's etymology, definition, pronunciation and part of speech, as well as live tweets, the speller's bio and more.

The 90th Annual SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE will feature 291 champion spellers, ranging in age from six to 15. Spellers qualify for the national competition by winning locally sponsored spelling contests in their respective communities. The champion spellers who travel to the Washington, D.C. area represent all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Department of Defense Schools in Europe; also, the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea.

Date	Time (ET)	Round	Networks
Wed, May 31	8 - 12:15 p.m.	Preliminary Round & Play Along Version	ESPN App
	10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.	Lunchtime with the Spelling Bee	ESPN App
	1:15 - 6:15 p.m.	Preliminary Round & Play Along Version	ESPN App
Thu, Jun 1	10 a.m. - 2 p.m.	Finals	ESPN2, ESPN App
		Play Along Version	ESPNU
		Lunchtime with the Spelling Bee	ESPN App
	8:30 - 10:30 p.m.	Conclusion of Finals	ESPN, ESPN App
		Play Along Version	ESPNU

ABOUT THE SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE The SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE is the nation's largest and longest-running educational program. The purpose of the SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all of their lives. Visit spellingbee.com for more information about the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which is administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company.

For more information and real-time results for all segments of competition are provided at the Spelling Bee's official website.

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