Good job ESPN- on the heels of beginning the 2009 competition, ESPN aired NSB 2008. Nice little preview for what's gonna happen wednesday/thursday.
Here's notes:
Paul Loeffler has a .......very unique style. Right after Kavya Shivashankar went out on "ecrase," Paul proclaims her to be the frontrunner for 2009. Already, Paul, really? I guess it was put in there to make Kavya feel better, hype up the intensity of the bee, whatever, but it just highlighted the whole "Shivashankar or bust" campaign for this year. She and her sister are the new Samir Patel for ESPN.
Paul also emphasized that "the 5-year experience that Tia Thomas had was a great advantage.....that's what I've been saying all along, Paul!"
Paul's timing is somewhat.....off. Many times he would start a thought about someone, (or just glancing down at contestant notes and rambling off a fun fact), and he'd get cut off by the speller asking for a definition or something, and it's just like, c'mon now.
"Kulturkampf."- Sidharth had it, he started smiling when he said it, he gave a little Samir-Patel-like move, asking "Is it German?" all signs indicating he had it down pat, but the Spelling bee just HAD to make him say it like 15 times.....Even Sidharth was up there going, "uh, I got the word, can I just spell it now?" Sheesh.
Prospopopoiea- I remember thinking this last year- did Sidharth know the word but just forget the "iea?" The word itself sound remarkably like onomatopoiea.......i wonder what would have happened.
Watching the bee reminds me (again) that the favorites aren't guaranteed to win......The hype last year was either Matthew Evans or Tia Thomas, pick one.........and maybe Kavya Shivashankar as the wild card. Result: none of those. This year, the prevailing trend seems to be Shivashankar, then Chand, and then a number of contenders........hhhmmmmmm..............
No comments:
Post a Comment