GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Kent Intermediate School District held its 46th Annual Greater Grand Rapids Spelling Bee Tuesday night.
So, FOX 17 decided to hold its first-ever Unfiltered Spelling Bee.
It also might be the last.
Morning Show anchors Elliot Grandia and Ruta Ulcinaite stepped up to the challenge alongside Meteorologist Reece Cole.
All three came in with high hopes. All three left with a dictionary at the top of their next shopping list.
From here on out, we have decided to leave the spelling to the middle schoolers. After all, Max Goldwasser did pull his list of words for today's Unfiltered Spelling Bee from a list of words that would be "good for a spelling bee for middle schoolers."
That was his literal Google search Tuesday morning when looking for some ideas.
Meantime, there are 16 finalists for the Kent ISD Greater Grand Rapids Spelling Bee. That's narrowed down from a field of tens of thousands of students in 4th-8th grade, after 130 schoolwide competitions and eight regional finals.
The winner of Kent ISD's bee will be moving on to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which runs from May 30-June 1 and will take place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
We hope you laugh. We hope you smile. We hope you learn that even the smartest people, with all the comfort in the world in front of the camera, can sometimes crack under pressure.