Starts today.  Semifinals air on ESPN tomorrow from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.  Final round airs on primetime ABC — 8:00 to 10:00 pm — tomorrow night.  If you get a chance to see it — even if it’s for ten minutes — do so.  These kids are amazing, and the competition is nail-biting. 

Here’s some stats from the Scripps National Spelling Bee website:

Spellers:
286
This is the greatest number of spellers in the history of the event.

Gender:
139 boys (48.6%) and 147 girls (51.4%)
This year’s gender statistics are typical of previous years’ gender statistics.

Age:
11 ten-year-olds (3.84%)
28 eleven-year-olds (9.79%)
66 twelve-year-olds (23.1%)
105 thirteen-year-olds (36.71%)
75 fourteen-year-olds (26.22%)
1 fifteen-year-old (.34%)
This year’s age statistics are typical of previous years’ age statistics.

Grade:
2 fourth graders (.7%)
23 fifth graders (8.04%)
36 sixth graders (12.6%)
88 seventh graders (30.76%)
137 eighth graders (47.9%)
This year’s grade statistics are typical of previous years’ grade statistics.

School Type:
192 public (67.13%)
38 private (13.29%)
36 home (12.59%)
14 parochial (4.9%)
5 charter (1.75%)
1 virtual (.34%)
Of last year’s 274 spellers, 195 were public-schooled, 37 were home-schooled, 26 were private-schooled, 13 were parochial-schooled, and 3 were charter-schooled.

Siblings:
Forty (40) spellers are only children. The remaining 246 spellers have 243 sisters and 254 brothers among them. Spellers 64 and 273 are fraternal twins, and Speller 4 is an identical twin.
This year’s siblings statistics are typical of previous years’ siblings statistics.

Family Ties:
19 spellers have at least one relative (mother, brother, sister, uncle, or cousin) who has competed in previous national finals. They are spellers 7, 17, 84, 87, 90, 96, 121, 122, 126, 134, 145, 153, 197, 199, 206, 225, 226, 240, and 254.
This year’s family ties statistics are typical of previous years’ family ties statistics.