2020 National Spelling Bee Postponed Indefinitely Due to Coronavirus

The 2020 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which was scheduled to take place the week of May 24 in National Harbor, Maryland, has been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bee will attempt to reschedule its 93rd edition for later in 2020. It was last canceled from 1943-45 because of World War II, per Ben Nuckols of the Associated Press.

Maryland governor Larry Hogan announced Thursday that gatherings should feature no more than 10 people during the state of emergency because of the coronavirus.

"Despite all of our repeated warnings for weeks, and in spite of the rapid escalation of this crisis across our state, the nation, and the world, some people are treating this like a vacation or a spring break with parties, cookouts, and large gatherings," he said. "Let me be very clear—if you are engaged in this, you are in violation of state law and you are endangering the lives of your fellow Marylanders."

The National Spelling Bee was expected to be attended by around 400 spellers in addition to their families, competition staff and TV personnel.

Scripps announced in December it was reducing the field size, which reached 562 last year, and creating a more challenging word list for the 2020 event.

The changes came after the 2019 Bee ended in an eight-way tie when the word list was exhausted.

Nuckols noted some local and regional qualifying competitions have also been postponed because of the pandemic.

Eligibility requirements may also be altered if it's pushed into the fall, when U.S. students begin their new school year, to allow ninth graders to compete in their final Bee.