OXON HILL, Md. — Of all the schoolchildren who participate in their classroom spelling bees across the United States, nine remain in the2025 Scripps National Spelling Beeas the finals begin tonight at 8 p.m. ET. Those finalists, ages 12-14, advanced 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 spellers square off 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 crowned during the Bee's 100th anniversary celebration. 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 andspellingbee.com. The finals begin at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Fans can head tospellingbee.com/watchand enter their zip code for instructions on how to watch the Bee in their specific area. Zaki, 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). This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:National Spelling Bee finals live updates: time, TV, what to know
