The Great Celebrity Spelling Bee

Channel 7 has gone back to basics with its latest game show offering and has adopted a US game show format based solely on spelling. For most of us, an ability to spell words correctly is not as crucial to our daily lives as it used to be. We rely upon Microsoft Word’s red squiggly line to identify misspelled words (and then we blame it on bad typing rather than an inability to spell). In the pressure-packed environment of a TV studio, where contestants are taken away from a computer spell-checker and are competing for the glory of spelling bee supremacy and cash prizes, correct spelling of obscure words takes on a whole new importance.

Feeding the public’s insatiable desire for all things celebrity, the contestants were not mere mortals but supposed celebrities all playing on behalf of their favourite charity. Unfortunately, these were not A-list celebrities, and not even B-list or C-list celebrities. Channel 7 scraped the depths of the celebrity barrel to put together a motley crew of 12 contestants all in need of a fame boost. The show featured, not surprisingly, actors and hosts of Channel 7 shows along with Olympic swimmers, a cricketer, the estranged wife of a cricketer, a disgraced politician, a Wiggle, a real actress, a music guru and an entertainer. Nevertheless, watching (moderately) famous people squirm under pressure is more fun than watching real people.

The premise of the show was quite simple – spell words correctly to win. The celebrity contestants were divided into three teams two of which were eliminated as the show progressed leaving the four celebrities in the remaining team to play against each other. The use of teams was perplexing, a top speller teamed with three dud spellers would find themselves eliminated before the final round. In a bizarre and unnecessary twist, each team of celebrities was given two ‘lifelines’ where they were able to ask a precocious 11 year old, Samir Patel, for help when they got stuck. Touted by Channel 7 promotional material as an “American spelling bee champion”, Samir has only ever finished second and third in the US national spelling bee championship, he has never won it.

At times, the pace was quite slow. Host Todd McKenny’s attempts at suspense failed dismally and he engaged in too much meaningless banter with the celebrities. Despite this, having different formats for each round kept it interesting. Words were grouped into categories and had different levels of difficulty with points awarded accordingly. The celebrities were also asked to spell words backwards, race against the clock and take it in turns to spell words. The game was eventually won by Noeline Brown who beat ‘Deal or No Deal’ host Andrew O’Keefe in the final round.

This was a one-off special from Channel 7 but, if it rated well, don’t be surprised if it returns to our screens next year with real celebrity contestants. So what’s next for game shows on TV? If the ‘clever is cool’ philosophy continues, we could see Channel 9 trying to compete with a show based on mental arithmetic, or we could see the ABC invent an overly complex game based on English grammar that doesn’t make sense to the host, the contestants or the audience.

 

 Hello my name is Kacey Donavan. I am a still big fan of Ashalea McWalters who was prtrayed as the ditsy "jessica simpson alike" cute girl on Big Brother 4 australia. I love big brother and i love your spelling show.... me and my class at school were wondering can you please get ashalea to be on your next show as we really think she would be sooooo funny on it and we want to do an assignment on her.... we are based in pperth also where i think ashalea still lives but we only get to watch her on access 31 show teenwire or the couch or sweet and sour.... can we please see ashalea on your show n and i think her personality will suit it to a tea!!! dont let our perth girl disapear she is soooo funny and nice !!! keep up the great work! love kacey!

kc donavon, March 17, 2006 2:38

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