Well, the tournament to crown the nation's top speller is almost here.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee begins tomorrow in Washington, D.C., bringing together 247 finalists from all 50 states.

These spellers emerged from millions of competitors across the nation, all dreaming that this moment from last year could be theirs.

Your word is, A. Claire C. Small.

A Claire C-S-S-M-A-I-R-C-I-C-I-S-E-T-E-N-T. That is correct.

This year, the 101-year-old competition has a new host.

ESPN senior writer and NFL analyst Mina Kimes, who I spoke with recently.

Mina Kimes, welcome to The NewsHour. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

So we have been promised a revamped version of the B that you're going to be hosting.

What does that look like? Tell us about that.

Yeah, I'm so excited to be joining the broadcast this year, NBC Bro, who produces Jeopardy,

which I was just on.

So how I got to know them is producing it for the first time.

And I think with my addition, the goal is to give the be a big game feel.

I come from sports.

And when I watch the National Spelling Bee, to me, it feels like an incredible sporting event. These are elite competitors.

They deserve to be treated as such and celebrated. And that's what I really hope to do with all of this.

I think that's what our broadcast hopes to do is just get everybody invested really quickly in the

competition and then really place an emphasis on that winning moment at the end.

The bee winner, we should note here, gets $50,000 in a cash prize. They get a medal. They get

the Scripps Cup, which is the official trophy of the national spelling bee with some other prizes.

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