Wordle Goes Prime Time: Jimmy Fallon To Turn Viral Game Into TV Show

Jimmy Fallon is turning Wordle into a TV game show. NBC is testing a pilot version of the hit word puzzle that people play online every day. The show will be hosted by Savannah Guthrie and is being filmed in the UK.

According to Deadline, Fallon is helping develop the TV version through his production company, Electric Hot Dog, along with Universal Television Alternative Studio and The New York Times.

The Times owns the rights to the game and wanted to bring it to television, so they teamed up with Fallon and UTAS to make it happen.

Wordle was created by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle and became a huge hit when The New York Times bought it in 2022. It’s a simple but addictive game where players try to guess a five-letter word in six tries.

Each guess gives clues through colored tiles that show which letters are right and where they belong. Last year, the game was played 5.3 billion times, up from 4.8 billion the year before.

Fallon has always been a fan of the game. He once said he’s “addicted” to Wordle and even played it live on The Tonight Show.

If the show goes forward, Wordle will join Fallon’s growing list of TV projects on NBC. He recently launched the business competition series On Brand, and he’s also behind Password and That’s My Jam, both popular shows on the network.

Right now, the Wordle pilot is still being developed, but if NBC gives it the green light, fans could soon be watching contestants try to solve the world’s favorite word puzzle on TV instead of their phones.

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