Stephen Baxter knows his school pals were on TV by posing or passing in front of a camera. But the 12-year-old Montrealer insists he’s got a leg up on his friends as he’s among 16 kids from central Canada in Toronto to compete in Canada’s Super Speller, the CBC competition series being produced by Halifax Film.

‘My teacher put up a poster and highlighted the TV section and told me to enter, as I have a good vocabulary,’ Baxter says, as he brushes up on words like ‘seismograph’ and ‘acquiesce’ before striding on set with fellow challengers and series host Evan Solomon.

Baxter hopes to get past the regional competition to the October finals in Wolfville, NS, where the winner will receive a trophy and a $20,000 RESP.

Former CBC Television creative head of kids programming Cheryl Hassen, who is executive producing Canada’s Super Speller, says the six episodes of the spelling series aim to illustrate the character and storylines of each finalist, as well as identify the last speller standing.

‘We want the audience to come to know the 12 finalists, and to pick their favorites,’ Hassen says.

Being a CBC series, the spelling bee aims to be fun for participants, and competitive.

For example, a kids psychologist is on set as host Solomon conducts the spelldown to ensure the heat of competition doesn’t get to any of the players.

And kids who don’t do well during the straight spelldown can recover in the speed round, where challengers get 40 seconds to spell correctly as many words as possible.

‘We want the kids to succeed,’ Hassen explains.

Back on camera, another 12-year-old, Katie Martin of Toronto, a two-time winner of the TVOntario Spelling Bee, says juggling spelling competitions with playing the violin, piano, cello, flute and the guitar requires focus.

But she, too, jumps at the chance to be on TV.

‘Most people think being on TV is so cool that they won’t remember whether I won or lost,’ Martin sighs.