To (Spell) Bee or not to (Spell) Bee ?

As i was doing my routine channel surfing last night, i happened to come across this National Spell Bee contest in ESPN. I have heard a lot about these contests in newspapers.The first thing that struck me was why was this being broadcast in ESPN??Well, i wont categorize this under sports,what is there in contest of "Dictation words" (reminds me of those golden days in Primary school, when we had Dictation tests), it is more suited for Star World perhaps.As i watched the entire show, i realized that it had enough drama and action to come under the ESPN banner.There were pre-match interviews, where the contestants spoke about their special talents,preparation strategy and their seedings(?) this year.There were many immigrant contestants, especially from India and China.It was hard to believe that some of them had a personal coach to train them on spelling! The kids were amazing, they spelt all kinds of weird words(sample: 'Syringadenous','heiligenschein','maieutic').To be very honest, i had no clue about any of the words that were spelt during the contest.At times, this contest resembled more like the MTV Super Singer(the one hosted by Adnan Sami, some months back) as the parents got emotional when their kids struggled, the parents were more tensed than the kids!

Here is an interesting dialogue from this show:

Pronouncer: Here is your word @##$@$#$@# [well,not a swear word, i believe]
Kid: Okaaaaaaaay, Is this of 'Italian to French' origin?
Pronouncer: Well,may be, it is not listed here
Kid: Huh!