Instead of drooling over Heston Blumenthal desserts on our televisions, Australians on Monday night were instead scratching their heads as they tried to spell words like soliloquy and incessant.

The unlikely prime time television event was Ten's The Great Australian Spelling Bee, a spelling show bravely going up against cooking shows like Seven's Restaurant Revolution and Nine's The Hotplate in the 7.30pm timeslot.

The new program was embraced by Australians on social media, with #SpellingBeeAU trending on Twitter as people in the nation's living rooms tried to outsmart the show's child genius contestants.

Instead of typical television drama where we tune in to see catfighting over burnt dinners, The Great Australian Spelling Bee is a feelgood show about pint-sized Albert Einsteins trying to do their best.

Many of the children messed up words and were swiftly eliminated, but were handled with cotton gloves by encouraging hosts Grant Denyer and Chrissie Swan, and their parents who anxiously watched on from a room backstage.

The Great Australian Spelling Bee immediately felt like a strange MasterChef spinoff, with inspirational background music, an ostentatious set, friendly hosts and a supportive studio audience. Both shows are created by production company Shine.

Apart from melting Australians' hearts, the pint-sized television contestants also made the nation feel inadequate as they tried to spell words such as oscilloscope and imperturbable.

"So I'm watching The Great Australian Spelling Bee and I spelt accelerator wrong and the look on my mums eyes when she heard me," tweeted one person.

Many others also called it some of the most emotional television they'd watched. Some also questioned the show for asking children under the age of 10 to spell words like carafe.

Chrissie Swan told Fairfax Media last week that she was proud of the show.

"I'm proud of it," she says," because it's about intelligence and these kids have never been the star before. Often they're the forgotten kids because they're not winning races and all that sort of business. I'm really happy for them that they get the spotlight shone on them and I'm really happy for kids at home that they see that being clever is really cool."

WHY WOULD YOU MAKE AN EIGHT YEAR OLD SPELL CARAFE— Love Me Chender (@Gaddesse) August 3, 2015

Inadequate. Kids making the rest of us feel inadequate. #SpellingBeeAU— Carly Adno (@CarlyW226) August 3, 2015

Anyone else madly googling words? #SpellingBeeAU— Ali Marks (@AliMarks87) August 3, 2015

I’ve never checked the spelling of my tweets so diligently before! #SpellingBeeAU— Dan Hillier (@dan_hillier) August 3, 2015

These kids on @SpellingBeeAU are restoring my faith in people.. @grantdenyer @channelten #kidsaremuchnicerthanadults #SpellingBeeAU— Kate Ritchie (@kateritchie01) August 3, 2015

so im watching the great australian spelling bee and i spelt accelerator wrong and the look on my mums eyes when she heard me i— trisha (@sadkidzain) August 3, 2015