NBC orders game show version of Wordle with Savannah Guthrie as host
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- NBC has ordered a television adaptation of the New York Times’ Wordle puzzle game, to be hosted by “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie and debut in 2027.
- Co-produced by Jimmy Fallon’s company and Universal Television Alternative Studio, the show will film in Manchester, England, with production beginning later this year.
- Production delays came after Guthrie took a two-month hiatus after her mother’s January abduction; the team postponed filming to support her during the ongoing investigation.
NBCUniversal has ordered a TV adaptation of the popular New York Times puzzle Wordle that will be hosted by Savannah Guthrie.
Jimmy Fallon, whose company is co-producing the show, and Guthrie announced the series pickup Monday on NBC’s “Today.” “Wordle” will begin production this year and debut on NBC in 2027.
Guthrie filmed the pilot episode for Wordle in the fall in Manchester, England, where the series will be made as well. The project from Universal Television Alternative Studio, Fallon’s Electric Hot Dog and the New York Times has been in development for 2½ years.
Guthrie said she learned the show was picked up in February and was set to shoot episodes in March. But producers delayed the start as she went on a hiatus for two months after the disappearance of her mother, Nancy.
“They just stopped everything and said, ‘We will wait for you, of course,’” Guthrie said. “And Hollywood is a really tough business as you know, and I didn’t expect that.”
Guthrie returned to “Today” on April 6. Law enforcement officials believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will from her Catalina Foothills home in Arizona on Jan. 31. The investigation into her abduction is ongoing.
Guthrie did not mention the situation with her mother’s abduction, but indicated her game show duties will be another step toward normality. “I’m just determined to put one foot in front of the other,” she told colleagues.
The Nicaraguan-born commentator has been the most ubiquitous Republican critic of President Trump on ‘The View,’ CNN’s ‘NewsNight’ and a new digital offering ‘Bleep! With Ana Navarro.’
Wordle asks players to guess a five-letter word in six chances through a process of eliminating letters. An individual player’s performance in the game can be posted online without revealing the answer, as the colored tiles are shown without the letters.
Offered as part of a subscription to a bundle of puzzles on the New York Times website and app, Wordle has been a major driver of digital revenue for the company. The New York Times said this year that users solved the Wordle puzzle 4.4 billion times in 2025.
Wordle was created by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based software engineer Josh Wardle in 2021. After it became an immediate hit online, the New York Times purchased it for a price reported to be in the low seven-figure range.
