{"id":1785,"date":"2026-05-13T11:19:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T11:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/?p=1785"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T11:36:14","slug":"wordle-becomes-a-tv-game-show-reviving-a-format-from-35-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wordle-becomes-a-tv-game-show-reviving-a-format-from-35-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Wordle Becomes a TV Game Show, Reviving a Format From 35 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The thing nobody&#8217;s pointed out about NBC turning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/games\/wordle\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wordle<\/a> into a TV game show: we already had this show. It was called <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lingo_(American_game_show)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Lingo<\/em><\/a>, it first aired on American television in 1987, and the format was a five-letter mystery word, colour-coded feedback, a limited number of guesses. It&#8217;s the structure Wordle adopted thirty-five years later. At The Word Finder we call our Wordle variants <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/5-letter-wordle\/\">Lingle<\/a> precisely because that&#8217;s the lineage. So the news Monday isn&#8217;t quite &#8220;Wordle is becoming a TV show.&#8221; Maybe it&#8217;s more of a homecoming in a sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s likely also important context that the NBC, the <em>New York Times<\/em> and Jimmy Fallon took into consideration. They didn&#8217;t need to inventing a format. They&#8217;re simply betting that the millions of daily Wordle players will also want to watch other people play the same game, like many of us used to a couple of decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What NBC and the New York Times announced<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/1431850\/savannah-guthrie-to-host-wordle-game-show-jimmy-fallon-producing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">confirmed on Monday<\/a> that <em>Wordle<\/em> is coming to NBC as a game show, hosted by <em>Today<\/em> co-anchor <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Savannah_Guthrie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Savannah Guthrie<\/a> and co-produced by the <em>New York Times<\/em>, Universal Television Alternative Studio, and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jimmy_Fallon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jimmy Fallon<\/a>&#8216;s production company Electric Hot Dog. Teams will compete head-to-head to crack a five-letter word in six guesses, with cash prizes. The pilot is already filmed. The full series shoots this summer in England, with an air date still pending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few specifics worth flagging:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The format is competitive teams, not solo solvers. That&#8217;s a real departure from the private morning ritual most of us know.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>NYT<\/em> CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Meredith_Kopit_Levien\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Meredith Kopit Levien<\/a> framed the move as part of &#8220;creating experiences people return to and share every day,&#8221; which is corporate-speak but also accurate. Wordle has always been shared. The TV version institutionalises the sharing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <em>Times<\/em> described it as &#8220;an interesting, creative opportunity,&#8221; which is the most <em>NYT<\/em> way possible of saying &#8220;we think this might work.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/meredith-kopit-levien-nyt-ceo-960x639.jpg\" alt=\" Meredith Kopit Levien, CEO of The New York Times Company, who oversaw the Wordle TV game show deal with NBC.\" class=\"wp-image-1791\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/meredith-kopit-levien-nyt-ceo-960x639.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/meredith-kopit-levien-nyt-ceo-580x386.jpg 580w, https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/meredith-kopit-levien-nyt-ceo-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/meredith-kopit-levien-nyt-ceo-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/meredith-kopit-levien-nyt-ceo.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien framed the deal as part of NYT&#8217;s broader push to build &#8220;experiences people return to and share every day.&#8221;<\/em> <em><strong>Image Source<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/05\/20\/new-york-times-ceo-meredith-kopit-levien\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fortune<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Does the format actually translate to TV?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Wordle&#8217;s charm is private and brief. You play it on your phone in three minutes. You don&#8217;t speak. The reward is a single grey-yellow-green grid you share with three group chats. Take any of those properties away and you have a different game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A studio set with a buzzer and a clock isn&#8217;t private. A team format isn&#8217;t brief. And the appeal of watching someone else solve a Wordle is doing the math in your head before they do, which works fine at home but is hard to capture on television without slowing the pace into mush. <em>Lingo<\/em> got around this with a bingo overlay and aggressive editing. We&#8217;ll see what this version does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Useful proof of concept: a <em>Lingo<\/em> revival has been running on CBS since 2023, hosted by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/RuPaul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RuPaul Charles<\/a>. Same five-letter mystery word, same colour-coded feedback, same bingo overlay. It&#8217;s been quietly demonstrating that the format works on US television well before NBC&#8217;s announcement, just with less Wordle branding and more sequins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ll definitiely watch. Partly driven by nostalgia, and partly curiosity. Then time will tell whether it becomes a cultural phenomenon. One thing is for certain though, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/wordle-solver\/\">morning Wordle<\/a> is the version that matters, and that won&#8217;t be replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lingo-cbs-rupaul.jpg\" alt=\"RuPaul, host of CBS's Lingo game show revival, in a promotional image with the show's logo and tile-grid branding.\" class=\"wp-image-1796\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lingo-cbs-rupaul.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lingo-cbs-rupaul-580x326.jpg 580w, https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lingo-cbs-rupaul-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lingo-cbs-rupaul-150x84.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>RuPaul has hosted CBS&#8217;s Lingo revival since 2023, using the same five-letter, six-guess format Wordle borrowed.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What this actually changes for daily players<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Nothing, in practice. The puzzle still ships at midnight local. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/wordle-solver\/past-answers\/\">past answers archive<\/a> still updates. Your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/best-starting-words-for-wordle\/\">opening word strategy<\/a> (SLATE, CRANE, RAISE, ROATE if you&#8217;re feeling academic) is exactly as useful as it was on Sunday. If anything, the TV deal is a freshness signal that the daily puzzle isn&#8217;t going anywhere. Networks don&#8217;t licence game-show formats on assets the rights-holder plans to wind down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bigger story underneath this announcement is the one the official framing doesn&#8217;t quite say out loud: Wordle has graduated from &#8220;viral game <em>NYT<\/em> acquired&#8221; to &#8220;long-term cultural property <em>NYT<\/em> is extending.&#8221; That&#8217;s a different commitment level. It puts Wordle in the same operational tier as the crossword, alongside the rest of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/nyt-hub\/\">the <em>NYT<\/em> puzzles suite<\/a>. Which is, on balance, good news for the people who play it every morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">We&#8217;ll be tuning in<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The TV version is going to look different from the daily grid on your phone. It has to. A game show needs stakes, pacing, visible drama. Personally, we&#8217;re really looking forward to that. If you&#8217;ve ever shared a 3\/6 grid in a group chat or argued with someone about whether SLATE or CRANE is the better opener, this show is being made for you. Tune in alongside us, fellow word-game lovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n<div id=\"rank-math-faq\" class=\"rank-math-block\">\n<div class=\"rank-math-list \">\n<div id=\"faq-question-1778669943931\" class=\"rank-math-list-item\">\n<h3 class=\"rank-math-question \"><strong>When does the Wordle game show air?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div class=\"rank-math-answer \">\n\n<p>NBC has not announced a specific air date. The series is being filmed in England over summer 2026, with broadcast expected to follow.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"faq-question-1778669959337\" class=\"rank-math-list-item\">\n<h3 class=\"rank-math-question \"><strong>Who is hosting the Wordle game show?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div class=\"rank-math-answer \">\n\n<p><em>Today<\/em> co-anchor <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Savannah_Guthrie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Savannah Guthrie<\/a> is hosting. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jimmy_Fallon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jimmy Fallon<\/a>&#8216;s production company Electric Hot Dog is co-producing, alongside the <em>New York Times<\/em> and Universal Television Alternative Studio.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"faq-question-1778669972268\" class=\"rank-math-list-item\">\n<h3 class=\"rank-math-question \">Is the daily Wordle changing?<\/h3>\n<div class=\"rank-math-answer \">\n\n<p>No. The TV format is a separate competitive show. The daily puzzle on the <em>NYT<\/em> site (and our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/wordle-solver\/\">Wordle Solver<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/wordle-solver\/past-answers\/\">past answers archive<\/a>) continues unchanged.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"faq-question-1778669986570\" class=\"rank-math-list-item\">\n<h3 class=\"rank-math-question \">Does the New York Times still own Wordle?<\/h3>\n<div class=\"rank-math-answer \">\n\n<p>Yes. The <em>Times<\/em> acquired <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wordle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wordle<\/a> from creator Josh Wardle in January 2022 and remains the rights-holder. The game show is licensed and co-produced by the <em>Times<\/em>, not sold off.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"faq-question-1778670008986\" class=\"rank-math-list-item\">\n<h3 class=\"rank-math-question \">Has anything like a Wordle-themed game show been tried before?<\/h3>\n<div class=\"rank-math-answer \">\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lingo_(American_game_show)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Lingo<\/em><\/a>, which first aired on US television in 1987, used essentially the same five-letter, six-guess, colour-coded format. It&#8217;s the structural ancestor of both Wordle and the upcoming NBC show. It&#8217;s also the reason our Wordle variants are called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/5-letter-wordle\/\">Lingle<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The thing nobody&#8217;s pointed out about NBC turning Wordle into a TV game show: we already had this show. It&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,1,76,17],"tags":[100,101,89],"class_list":["post-1785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nyt-games","category-uncategorized","category-wordle","category-words","tag-news","tag-nyt-games","tag-wordle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1785"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1797,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785\/revisions\/1797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}