Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee

''Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee'' is a New Zealand television comedy panel show on Three, created and presented by Guy Montgomery and co-hosted by Sanjay Patel. The show is loosely based on a spelling bee: each episode, four comedians participate in a series of rounds, where the goal is almost always to spell words or names in rounds that are "designed to be infuriating to take part in and entertaining to watch". The winner of each episode competes again the following week, and the loser of each episode (the one who got last place) must wear a dunce cap in the Dunce's Corner.

The first series of ''Guy Mont-Spelling Bee'' aired in 2023, and the second series aired in late 2024. An Australian version of the show was commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 2024.

''Guy Mont-Spelling Bee'' was renewed for a third series in 2025.

Background and production

Guy Montgomery, inspired by the Scripps National Spelling Bee, began hosting spelling bees with other comedians over Zoom and broadcast live on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the success of those games, Montgomery developed the concept into a show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and then into a television show in 2023.

YouTube broadcasts

The first YouTube series of six broadcasts took place in 2020. The contestants were Tim Batt, Tom Sainsbury, Rose Matafeo, Madeleine Sami, Paul Williams, Alice Snedden, Jackie van Beek, Kura Forrester, Chris Parker, Ayo Edebiri, Paul F. Tompkins, Blair Socci, Joe Mande, Aaron Chen, Lily Sullivan, Colin Burgess, Jamie Loftus and Amy Hoggart.

A shorter, second series of contests were streamed in 2021, featuring Laura Daniel, Urzila Carlson, David Correos, Rebecca Lucas, Alexei Toliopoulos, Angella Dravid, Brynley Stent, Concetta Caristo, Chris Parker, Alice Snedden, and Pax Assadi.

Live shows

After the streaming broadcasts, Montgomery took the spelling bee to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2022, performing four shows across April. The guests for each show were Becky Lucas, Urzila Carlson, Chris Parker, and Suren Jayemanne; Melanie Bracewell, Sam Campbell, Phil Wang, and Rhys Nicholson; Emma Holland, David O'Doherty, Luke Heggie, and Fern Brady; and Danielle Walker and Vidya Rajan.

''Guy Mont-Spelling Bee'' returned to the MICF in 2023, with five shows. The guests this year were Tim Batt, Josie Long, Patrick Golamco, and Patti Harrison; Anne Edmonds, Mark Watson, Jason Leong, and Frankie McNair; Ed Gamble, Courtney Dawson, Tim Key, and Chloe Petts; Kitty Flanagan, Urzila Carlson, Sam Pang, and Ed Kavalee; and Michael Hing, Rosie Jones, Geraldine Hickey, and Guy Williams. The next month in May 2023, ''Guy Mont-Spelling Bee'' premiered in Sydney.

A bee was held in August 2023 in Auckland, featuring Abby Howells, Courtney Dawson, Joe Daymond, and David Correos. Another live bee at the 2024 Melbourne International Comedy Festival featured John Kearns, Anne Edmonds, Anirban Dasgupta, and Fern Brady.

Television

Ordered by Discovery NZ, ''Guy Mont-Spelling Bee'' was developed into a television show by Montgomery together with comedian Joseph Moore and the production company Kevin & Co. Funding of the show comes from NZ On Air. Montgomery also serves as the showrunner.

The "retro" feel of the show is intentional, as Montgomery wanted the set to feel "timeless" by using physical props and as few screens as possible. Sacha Young was the stylist for the production. Additionally, Montgomery notes that the "hokey" title of the show "sets the tone for the experience".

Series 1 was filmed in November 2022 in Auckland, and was broadcast for eight weeks starting in February 2023 at the 7.30pm timeslot on Three. On 10July 2023, it was announced that the show had been renewed for a second eight-episode series.

Series 2 was filmed in November 2023 with at least one guest, Rose Matafeo, confirmed before broadcast. New episodes aired once a week for eight weeks at the slightly earlier 7.00pm timeslot starting on 22August 2024 on Three.

Format

Every episode begins with The Spelling Round, a standard spelling bee round in which the contestants select a word from three containers with varying levels of spelling difficulty ranging from 13 points: the Coward's Cup, the Person's Purse, or the Bucket of Bravery. Other rounds include:

Rounds introduced in season 1

* Celebrities: Guests spell a celebrity's name given their picture.
* Choose A Letter: Guests pick a letter, and then must spell a given animal name without using that letter.
* Feelings: Guests must identify an item by touch and then spell it.
* Flags: Guests pick words from a board covered in flags, national or otherwise.
* Hard Words For a 13 Year Old: Guests are each joined by a 13-year-old, who may win a prize.
** This round returned in season 2 under the name Hard Words for a Fourteen Year Old, where they are joined by the same children as the last season's round.
* High School Photo: Guests bring in photos from their time in high school and Montgomery picks a winner; "hardly even a game at all."
* Homophones: Guests must spell the correct word from homophones.
* Household Adjectives: Guests pick household items and then must spell a given adjective related to the item.
* How Many Letters: Guests guess how many letters are in a jar.
* Instruments: Guests hear a musical instrument and must spell it.
* Invent A Word: Guests must create the best new word for a given concept.
* Object Round: Guests spell a given word using physical objects.
* Punctuation: Guests are shown punctuation marks and must spell them.
* Social Media: Montgomery confronts guests with past social media posts, and they must recreate or rectify typos, or spell a given related word.
* Spell It Better: Guests invent a new and improved spelling for an existing word.
* Spell It On A Calculator: Guests must use a calculator to spell a given word.
* Spell Like a Six Year Old: Guests must match the spelling of a 6-year-old child.
* Spell The Animal: Montgomery wears a series of animal masks which inspire the words that the guests must spell.
* Spell The Audience Name: Guests choose a member of the audience and then must spell their full name.
* Spell The Colour: Guests pick words to spell from a multi-coloured board.
* Wingdings: Guests must translate a word displayed in Wingdings.

Rounds introduced in season 2

* A Clever Round Of Spelling Things Interestingly and Creatively (ACROSTIC): Guests make an acrostic from a given word that must also be spelled correctly.
* The Animal Kingdom: select an animal from the board, and then spell the collective noun used to refer a group of them.
* Customs: Guests spell items prohibited from importation to New Zealand by the New Zealand Customs Service, trying to get the longest word among them. To be eligible for points, it must be spelled correctly as one word.
* A Decent Proposal: Guests are put into pairs. Each guest is assigned one easy word and one very hard word to have their partner spell. This is a prisoner's dilemma situation. If both guests spell correctly, they get two points each. If only one guest in the pair spells correctly, that guest gets four points.
* The Emotional Round: Guests spell and make emotions. Two separate points can be earned, one for spelling and one for performing the emotion.
* The Gift of Spelling: A Christmas-themed round in which guests spell the word based on the gift they received.
* The Hat Hat: Guests choose and wear a hat and spell it. Guests may remove their hat only on the next time they give a correct spelling.
* Horsing: A Round: Each guest has a horse assigned to them in a "horse race." Before starting the race, guests can bet up to five points on a horse they believe will win at 2/1 odds. A correct spelling moves their horse forward.
* Idioms: Guests try to spell the missing word in the idiom they chose.
* Letters: Guests must spell a specific word from mail that Guy has 'stolen from his neighbour'.
* Money: Guests pick a value of physical currency and spell a word associated with it. If they answer incorrectly, the selected denomination is deducted from their paycheck.
* Shut Up and Spell: Working in teams of two, one guest mimes a word to the other, who has to both guess the word and spell it correctly.
* Spel Itt Wurst: Guests try to spell the given word in the worst way possible; they can be penalised for giving an overly accurate spelling.
* Spell a Swear Word: Invent a new swear word, and explain it.
* Spell the Crew Member's Name: Guests must identify and spell the correct full name of a crew member of the show.
* Spell the Crime, Do the Time: Guests take turns to spell crime-related words; making a mistake causes them to "go to prison".
* Spell the Smell: Without their sense of sight, guests guess (using their sense of smell) and spell the contents of their given jar.
* Spell the Soup: Each guest is given the same soup in which they must identify and spell.
* Spelling Well: Guests attempt to decipher a word that Sanjay yells from within a well, and as a result is muffled and hard to hear.
* The Spelling Spell: Guests spell a word describing the object transformed with magic. The guest may ask to conjure again up to twice for a harder word that has twice the value of the previous word.
* The Time Machine: Guests have to spell words that originated from a specific year in history.
* Wifi Round: Guests pick a modem, and have to spell the Wi-Fi password for it.

The Buzz Round

Each episode ends with The Buzz Round, a themed, timed, fast-paced round in which contestants hit a buzzer first for the chance to spell each word; they lose a point if the spelling is incorrect. Montgomery may interrupt the guest at any time if they make a mistake in their spelling. The contestant in last place before the round begins gets to pick one of four categories provided; if there is a tie for last place, the guest closest to Montgomery gets the choice of categories. The time limit of this round varies with episode, ending once the voice of the "spelling gods" is heard.

If there is a tie between contestants with the highest score, a tie-break word is provided among the tied contestants. The player who spells the word correctly wins the episode, while an incorrect spelling forfeits the episode.

Episodes

Series 1 (2023)

The average rating across the first three episodes was 106,000, which had improved to 118,100 for the average rating across the last three episodes.

Series 2 (2024)

The series premiere recorded 98,800 viewers. The average viewership of the episodes broadcast in September 2024 was 77,700. After a brief uptick, viewership then settled at 75,600 for the final episode.

:Winners in bold, dunces in ''italics''.

Australian version

Series 1 (2024)

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) commissioned an Australian version of the show in April 2024. It premiered on 14 August 2024 on ABC TV, and the entire series of eight episodes was released on the same day on ABC iview. Urzila Carlson made an appearance in the first episode of the Australian version.

Series 2 (2025)

The studio elements of the second series were recorded at ABC Studio 22 in Sydney from 19 to 26 February 2025, consisting of 10 episodes and one special.

References

External links

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*{{IMDb title, 29083271

New Zealand English-language television shows
2020s New Zealand television series
New Zealand panel games
Television shows funded by NZ on Air
2023 New Zealand television series debuts
Three (TV channel) original programming
Spelling competition television shows