Like most of us, Guy Montgomery found himself with a lot of time on his hands during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
But instead of trialling home haircuts or taking up the ukulele, the New Zealand-born comedian had a better idea – he’d call fellow comics and challenge them to a good old-fashioned spelling bee, streaming their vocab struggles to the world.
The result was hilarious as the sharpest minds in comedy showed they might be able to tackle a heckler but couldn’t cope with a herpetologist.
Instantly successful, the streams drew crowds of online followers, led to a stage show, then a TV series last year which is now an even bigger and better production… and nobody is more surprised than Guy.
“There was really no ambition above just whiling away the hours,” Guy, 36, tells TV WEEK.
“There was sort of quite a natural growth or momentum to each next step. So from online and the live show, to thinking: ‘Oh, this is a good format, this could be on TV.’ So this is just amazing but it was never the end goal!”
Planned or not, the second season of Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee returns this week with the delighted host and his faithful sidekick Aaron Chen introducing a cast of new spellers including TV WEEK Gold Logie winner Rove McManus, Hannah Gadsby and Tagashi Wakasugi spelling out difficult words in a range of new and challenging games designed to show not just if they can spell, but how much they can go off on a tangent when faced with a question they don’t know the answer to.
The goal is to give viewers something unexpected each week, Guy says, but also to give the the comedians a space where they can – as usual – head off in whatever direction they like.
“It’s my job to apply the rules that I have helped create but it’s but inside of that everyone’s pretty much free to do what they please!”
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