Mina Kimes takes over as Scripps National Spelling Bee host as part of reimagined broadcast

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Mina Kimes is taking over as television host of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and the ESPN NFL analyst hopes to use her outsider’s perspective to capture the excitement of the 101-year-old competition. Kimes, whose hiring was announced Tuesday, becomes the first celebrity host for the bee since LeVar Burton in 2022. That was the year Scripps took over the broadcast from ESPN, its longtime TV home, and began airing it on ION and Bounce, both of which are owned by the Cincinnati-based media c