Forget the odds about becoming an American Idol or the next winner of The Voice. For this annual national spelling bee competition, there are some 11 million competitors in the original field – a number winnowed, through various local and regional contests, to the 281 super-spellers who make it to tonight’s final rounds, televised live on ESPN. I don’t know why it is that I’m so drawn to this particular event, or so accepting of the fact that ESPN presents it as a “sport.” What I do know, though, is that this annually televised spelling contest is TV at its purest.