What connects Only Connect and New York Times? Game’s similarity puzzles host
It’s quite the conundrum. Is a new puzzle game launched by the New York Times original, or does it have connections to a long-running BBC programme?
Victoria Coren Mitchell, host of the BBC’s Only Connect, floated the question on Twitter in response to the US newspaper’s associate puzzle editor sharing its new game Connections.
In the BBC programme, contestants are asked to solve a wall of 16 clues, grouping four sets of four seemingly unconnected things. The NYT game asks players to group four sets of four words with a common thread.
On Twitter, Coren Mitchell and others were quick to draw comparisons to the popular British quizshow, now into its 18th series.
“Do you know this has been a TV show in the UK since 2008 ?!” asked Coren Mitchell in reply to Wyna Liu, the paper’s associate puzzle editor. “It’s so similar I guess you must do?”
“If you need a hand at all, I’ve written over 750 of these for Only Connect,” wrote Mike Turner, a senior writer for Only Connect, who also drew comparisons to the Radio Times magazine which runs a similar game weekly.
A former contestant of the show, Kat Brown, also chimed in: “Er, I was on the TV show of this game just this year. The 18th season of this show.”
The New York Times has looked to the UK for inspiration before. In 2022, it acquired the blockbuster viral word game Wordle for an undisclosed sevenfigure sum.
It was originally created by Josh Wardle, who wrote the game to amuse his girlfriend. The Welsh software engineer, based in Brooklyn, said at the time that it didn’t “feel great” that the game had gone viral, making him feel a sense a responsibility to players.
Games have proved lucrative for the New York Times, which reported an increasing demand for its lifestyle products and pressure from an activist investor with a nearly 7% stake in the company to push bundled subscriptions – which include games – harder.