An orthographic, prepubescent champion will be crowned Thursday when the 2025 Scripps Spelling Bee wraps up with its final round outside of Washington D.C.
Nine spellers, ages 12-14, advanced to the final round over the first two days of the national competition. That is a cutdown from the 99 who made it to the quarterfinals Wednesday, with 57 advancing to the semifinals.
The remaining nine will square off in the finals beginning at 8 p.m. ET on ION with The Scripps Cup (and a $50,000 cash prize) on the line. Faizan Zaki, the 2024 runner-up, is among the group from which a champion will be named during the Bee’s 100th anniversary celebration.
Scripps National Spelling Bee finals live stream, TV channel
The Bee’s finals will air on Scripps-owned channel ION. The finals will also air on Scripps’ other national networks: Bounce, Grit, ION Mystery and Laff, as well as its free, ad-supported streaming channels ION Plus, Scripps News, Bounce XL, Grit Xtra, Laff More and spellingbee.com.
Scripps National Spelling Bee finals start time
The finals begin at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
Fans can head to spellingbee.com/watch and enter their zip code for instructions on how to watch the Bee in their specific area.
Who will win the 2025 Spelling Bee?
Zaiki, a 13-year-old from Dallas, Texas, is a strong candidate based on track record. He’s the lone returning finalist and is competing in his fourth Bee. He advanced to the quarterfinals with a perfect score of 35 in the Round 3 preliminaries test Tuesday afternoon (the minimum score needed to advance was 13).