Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee

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.[3] Following the success of those games, Montgomery developed the concept into a show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.[1]

Guy Mont-Spelling Bee was developed into a television series by Montgomery together with comedian Joseph Moore and the production company Kevin & Co.[1] Montgomery is also the showrunner.

Series 1 was filmed in November 2022 in Auckland.[4]

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 1–3 points: the Coward's Cup, the Person's Purse, or the Bucket of Bravery.[1][2] Other rounds include:

• 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 world flags.
• Hard Words For a 13 Year Old: Guests are each joined by a 13-year-old, who may win a prize.
• 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 are given adjectives to spell based on various household items.
• 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.

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.