Welcome to Guy Montgomery’s Guy-Mont Spelling Bee - a fast-paced, entertaining, and hilarious new comedy panel show that puts four famous faces through their paces, as they attempt to spell a myriad of words as best they can, all to be crowned that week’s best speller.
Host Guy Montgomery and his loyal assistant Aaron Chen challenge four famous faces, composed of both established names and up-and-coming comics, to answer a series of spelling challenges of varying levels of difficulty.
Everyone has a relationship to spelling. We all learn to spell, we all have to spell and most importantly, everyone thinks they can spell. It isn’t until you have to spell a word under pressure that things start wiggling around and you doubt yourself - it’s even better when it’s a naturally funny person on-camera sweating whether there are two r’s in embarrassing.
Each episode contains five rounds. Some appear every episode, some make occasional appearances, and some appear once, never to be seen again - however each episode is bookended with two rounds that open and close each episode.
The opening round is the aptly named “The Spelling Round”, where each comedian is invited to select a word from either “The Coward’s Cup” (which will earn them 1 point), “The Person’s Purse” (which will earn them 2 points), or “The Bucket of Bravery (which will earn them 3 points). In this round, as well as many others, the contestants can ask for a definition of the word, the country of origin, and to hear the word in a sentence.
The fifth and final round of every episode is “The Buzz Round” - where an episode can be won or lost. Host Guy Montgomery rattles off a series of words all tied together with a very loose theme. Buzz in first and spell it right, they win a point. Buzz in first and spell it wrong, they lose a point. This is a fast-and-furious spelling-filled round where the lead can change many times.
Other rounds featured include the likes of:
- “The Hat Hat” - where comedians must select a hat to put on their head from an even bigger hat, and can’t take it off until they spell it correctly.
- “Instruments” - where comedians have to not only correctly identify what obscure instrument Aaron is playing, they then have to spell it correctly.
- “Social Media” - where Guy has dug up old social media posts from that episode’s comedians, and they’re asked to fix up their past mistake.
The points accrued by the contestants throughout the episode are tallied up after the final round, with the highest scoring contestant given a one-way ticket to the next episode.
Series History:
The original idea for the Guy Mont Spelling Bee was conceived and broadcast throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns via live streaming on YouTube. Guy took friends and comedians through their spelling paces, celebrating and/or humiliating them on Zoom for all to see.
Live shows and comedy festival iterations of the spelling bee quickly became fan favourites, before the show was picked up by production company Kevin & Co for television.
Season One of the Guy Mont Spelling Bee New Zealand first aired in 2023 on Three and was met with positive critical and audience acclaim. Season Two was filmed in November of 2023 and is set to broadcast in 2024.
Production credits:
Commissioned by the ABC. A Kevin & Co and ABC co-production. Executive Producer: Cam Bakker, Bronwynn Bakker, Greg Sitch, Guy Montgomery. ABC Executive Producer Mark Sutton. ABC Head of Entertainment Rachel Millar
Episodes
All episodes available to stream from Wednesday 14 August
Episode 1 and 2 see above.
Episode3
Wednesday 28 August at 8.30pm
Cameron James, Jenny Tian, Tim Minchin and our reigning champ Nazeem Hussein undertake a spelling horse race complete, attempt impressions of famous faces and put each others trust to the test.
Episode 4
Wednesday 4 September at 8.30pm
Will Anderson, Steph Tisdell and Demi Lardner join our new carryover champ Cameron James as they try to avoid going to Spelling Jail. Aaron rustles up some drink options and treats the comedians to musical performances.
Episode 5
Wednesday 11 September at 8.30pm
Tom Ballard, Luke McGregor, Nikki Britton and previous winner Wil Anderson spell magic courtesy of Aaron the magnificent, choose their own adventure through the latest Guy Montgomery novel and are forced to Shut up and Spell.
Episode 6
Wednesday 18 September at 8.30pmo
Rhys Nicholson, Concetta Caristo and Dan Rath join new winner Tom Ballard as they select and attempt to spell audience members’ names, travel Aaron’d the world with Aaron Chen, and spell the dances happening in front of them.
Episode 7
Wednesday 25 September at 8.30pm
Greg Larsen, Zoe Coombs Marr, Tony Armstrong and our carryover champ Tom Ballard join some legends from various sporting codes as they attempt to spell together, before Guy asks our comedians to spell their feelings.
Episode 8
Wednesday 2 October at 8.30pm
It’s the final episode of the season and to celebrate we’re joined by Michael Hing, Alex Lee, Tom Walker and current champion Greg Larsen. Our comedians battle it out over past social media posts, and explore ‘girt by sea’.
