Did You Know This About the National Spelling Bee?

Of the 87 champions of the E.W. Scripps Company National Spelling Bee, 46 have been girls and 41 have been boys.

Co-champions were declared in 1950, 1957, and 1962. (Assuming it was a tie when time was up.)

See how Chesterfield's 2012 champ is doing at the National competition.

A St. Louis contestant was a co-champ in 1962, Michael Day, and he was sponspored by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The final word was "esquamulose" meaning smooth skin, not scaley.

Nine newspapers collaborated to start the National Spelling Bee in 1925.

In 1941, Scripps took over sponsorship of the National Spelling Bee. There was no Scripps National Spelling Bee during the war years of 1943–45.

The program experienced steady growth between the 1920s and the 1970s, and between 1980 and 1990 the number of participants doubled.

In recent years the program underwent a second growth spurt — and a significant surge in popularity — thanks to live coverage on ESPN.

Television broadcast history:

• 1946: The national finals were broadcast live on NBC.

• 1974 and 1977: The national finals were broadcast on PBS a taped primetime special.

• 1994–2009: The national finals were broadcast live in daytime on ESPN.

• 2006–2010: The national finals were broadcast live on ABC.

• 2011: The national finals were broadcast live in primetime on ESPN.

• 2012: The national finals to be broadcast live on ESPN 8-10pm, May 31.

E.W. Scripps Company National Spelling Bee provided these interesting factoids about the annual event, on their website.