Shaq and Erin Andrews bring star power to National Spelling Bee

WASHINGTON, DC - Even Shaq has the spelling bee bug. The NBA superstar was on stage at the National Spelling Bee challenging last year's winner to a showdown.

"Kitten, k-i-t-t-e-n," Shaq said proudly.

He was taping a segment for his ABC show Shaq vs.

The competition in Washington, DC is down to the final ten. Tampa native Erin Andrews is used to interviewing sports stars on ESPN, but here she's turning the mic on the super spellers.

 "This is pretty crazy. They are so calm cool and collected. Even doing a post-game interview with them after they walk off the stage and they've misspelled the word, they just have it all together," said Andrews.

Andrews moved to Tampa in the 2nd grade, she admits she was never a spelling bee whiz.

"The good news is, my spelling has gotten even worse with text messaging and emails, and spell check," said Andrews.

Erin is fresh off a 3rd place finish on Dancing With the Stars, and despite the grueling practice schedule she says she misses it.

 "We became such a family within three months. And everybody was so close. And everybody is texting each other. A lot of the dancers were texting me during the bee today," said Andrews.

"Can any of them spell?"

"No most of them are Russian or Albanian and all that. So just saying thier last name would be a great spelling word as well."

Yes, spelling Chrmerkovskiy -- would be a challenge

even for the spelling bee finalist.