Since April 4, millions of people have followed the journeys of three young finalists on the National Bible Bee Game Show. On June 6 at 8 pm on Christian Cinema Facebook Live, Kirk Cameron hosted the Senior Division Finals where Caleb Hoverson walked away with $100,000.
With National Bible Bee Game Show judges Hannah Leary and twins David and Jason Benham looking on, senior division final contestants Hoverson, Febah Matthew, and Hannah del Toro put their hard work to the test. Having memorized the nearly 850 Scripture verses, they recited and answered questions about a random selection of those passages one last time.
Del Toro advanced from the second week of the contest, and counts on her Chihuahua, Cookie Dough, as a steady companion. The other two semi-finalists advanced from the third week of the contest. Hoverson, who wrote the devotional book that each contestant received, longs to serve people in his everyday life, especially Native Americans; Matthew takes joy in her musical talents, fondly remembering a prior competition where the contestants sang late into the night in celebration together.
In the recitation buzzer round, Hoverson and del Toro entered tied with 2800, and Matthew only trailing by two hundred points. But before the final round, the judges demanded Cameron take center stage and answer questions. The Benhams started off easy – asking Cameron to share his favorite line from Growing Pains – before turning to a passage for Cameron to recite while standing on the center stage: John 12:31. Of course, while he recited one verse, the contestants were reciting up to a dozen at a time!
In the recitation round, Hoverson pulled away to take the $100,000 prize, and Matthew finished the competition off by passing del Toro to take the second place, $25,000 prize. Del Toro finished in third with a $15,000 prize.
The National Bible Bee Game Show contestants were chosen from the annual National Bible Bee grouped in three age divisions. They start at Primary (ages 7-10), Junior (ages 11-14), and finish in Seniors (ages 15-18). From each age division, the top three percent of contestants compete in the bracket-style Scripture-knowledge tourney. In preparation, young people commited to memory up to 850 passages from the Bible.
Produced by Enthuse Entertainment, the National Bible Bee Game Show has had over ten million views on Facebook this season. It also reached 80 million homes in the previous season on three TV networks and was broadcast globally on NRB Network, CTN and UPLIFT TV.
Since the National Bible Bee’s first contest in 2009, more than 40,000 young people have participated. Competition begins locally and online where the top 360 local participants advance to the National Bible Bee Game Show.
The National Bible Bee Game Show Senior Finals aired on Facebook Live at ChristianCinema.tv on June 6 and on ChristianCinema.com’s Digital HD platform where you can buy a season pass for all episodes.