Victoria Coren Mitchell Starts Beef With The New York Times Over New Word Game

Only Connect host Victoria Coren Mitchell has called out The New York Times over its new word game that bears an uncanny resemblance to a round of her long-running BBC quiz show.

On Monday, the US newspaper’s associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu launched a trial version of a new game called Connections, which joins a large number of successful apps, including Wordle, in the NYT stable.

“Very excited to share the game I’ve been working on, Connections! I’ve loved making it, and hope you enjoy playing,” Liu wrote.

The tweet prompted Coren Mitchell to throw shade at the Old Grey Lady (the newspaper’s nickname).

“Do you know this has been a TV show in the UK since 2008?!,” the presenter asked in Liu’s replies. “It’s so similar I guess you must do?”

The newspaper’s game asks quizzers to bring together apparently random words that have been set on a four-by-four grid.

By contrast, the BBC show’s connecting walls round asks quizzers to bring together apparently random words that have been set on a four-by-four grid.

Only Connect has been running since 2008, for a total of 436 episodes across 18 seasons.

In any case, the feud fired up social media. Senior writer for Only Connect, Mike Turner, wrote: “If you need a hand at all, I’ve written over 750 of these for Only Connect.”