Savannah

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 pick-up Monday on NBC’s “Today.” “Wordle” will begin production later this year and debut on NBC in 2027.

Guthrie filmed the pilot episode for Wordle last 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 two and a half 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 Guthrie 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 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 normalcy. “I’m just determined to put one foot in front of the other,” she told colleagues.

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 web site and app, Wordle has been a major driver of digital revenue for the company. The New York Times said earlier 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.

Savannah Guthrie is returning to “Today.”

Viewers of NBC’s morning program learned Friday that Guthrie will be back to her hosting duties at the network’s Rockefeller Plaza studio in New York on April 6.

Guthrie has been absent from “Today” since Feb. 2, the day after learning her mother Nancy was abducted from her Tucson home. She appeared on the program this week in a taped interview with Hoda Kotb, her first since her mother went missing..

Guthrie’s re-entry on “Today” is certain to generate significant viewer interest. Her 84-year-old mother’s case, still being investigated by law enforcement, generated an outpouring of public affection for the co-host.

Many media industry insiders expressed serious doubts over whether Guthrie would return to television before law enforcement determined what happened to Nancy Guthrie. But people close to Guthrie believe her grit and deep religious faith will provide her with the strength to move forward.

Guthrie’s daily presence on “Today” will also help keep her mother’s case in the public eye. NBC is also airing a special “Dateline” episode on the abduction on Friday.

Guthrie has spent most of the last seven weeks in Tucson with her family. She canceled plans to be a part of NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Milan and before this week only appeared on TV and social media in taped messages asking for the help in finding her mother.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen Jan. 31, when she spent the evening with family members. Law enforcement officials believe she was removed from her Catalina Foothills home later that night against her will as her phone, wallet, car and medication were left behind.

Surveillance videos of a masked man who was outside Guthrie’s front door on the night she disappeared were released by the FBI.