WFAA will once again host the Annual Dallas Regional Spelling Bee in its studios and broadcast the competition live, the Dallas Sports Commission announced.

Just one year after Faizan Zaki of Allen advanced from the Dallas Regional Bee to eventually win the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee, 26 more students will vie for one of three spots to the national championship. The contestants represent the top spellers out of about 100,000 students from over 815 schools in North and East Texas.

The bee, presented by the Dallas Sports Commission, will be held on Saturday, March 7, at WFAA’s Downtown Dallas studio, the sports commission announced in a press release. The event will be streamed live on WFAA+, which is available to download for free on Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.

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“WFAA is excited to once again serve as the official broadcast partner of the Dallas Regional Spelling Bee,” said Ryan Wood, WFAA’s Director of Community Impact. “We look forward to spotlighting the Bee’s celebration of language, learning, and literacy to audiences across North Texas through our streaming platform, WFAA+.”

The event will feature a first for regional-level spelling bees: Dr. Jacques Bailly, the official Head Pronouncer of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, will serve as this year’s pronouncer for the Dallas bee, the release states. Dr. Bailly, who won the spelling bee in 1980, is an associate professor of classics at the University of Vermont, specializing in Greek and Roman philosophy, etymology, and ancient languages.

The top three spellers from the Dallas Regional Spelling Bee will advance to the national competition and receive all-expense-paid trips to Washington D.C. The national bee is scheduled to take place May 24 – 29.

“The Dallas Sports Commission is proud to prioritize our community in many ways, and that includes our work through facilitating the Dallas Regional Spelling Bee,” said Monica Paul, Dallas Sports Commission Executive Director. “The Dallas Region is consistently recognized as one of the best in the country. We are thrilled to have so many national champions come from our bee program and can’t wait to see the future success of this year’s competitors.”

The bee is sponsored by Leon Capital Group, Southwest Airlines, and WFAA.