Victoria Coren Mitchell points out ‘similarity’ between New York Times game and Only Connect

‘Do you know this has been a TV show in the UK since 2008?!’ presenter tweeted

Victoria Coren Mitchell has pointed out the “similarities” between The New York Times’s newest puzzle and her popular UK gameshow Only Connect.

Coren Mitchell, 50, has hosted the fiendishly difficult BBC Two quiz programme, in which teams of contestants must spot the pattern between seemingly unrelated items in a sequence, since 2008.

On Monday (12 June), the NYT’s puzzles editor Wyna Liu unveiled “Connections”, the paper’s new game. In the game, users are presented with a grid of 16 words and required to sort them into four connecting groups of four.

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

However, Coren Mitchell was quick to point out the similarity between the game and the Connecting Wall round on Only Connect.

“Do you know this has been a TV show in the UK since 2008?!” she responded on Wednesday (14 June). “It’s so similar I guess you must do?”

Mike Turner, a senior writer on the BBC Two show, added: “If you need a hand at all, I’ve written over 750 of these for Only Connect.”

Other social media users also pointed out the similarity between the games.

“This has already been done,” one commenter wrote. “Only Connect has been running in the UK for 18 series and 436 episodes since 2008. Their "Connecting Wall" round is exactly what you’ve coded.”

“Great work. You’ve just created Only Connect! Only about 15 years late too,” another fan joked.

“Er, I was on the TV show of this game just this year. THE EIGHTEENTH SEASON of this show. #OnlyConnect,” another tweet read.

A spokesperson for The New York Times told The Independent: “Grouped words is a common theme of games. The content of Connections is unique, handcrafted and has a distinctive style synonymous with New York Times Games.”

Only Connect is known for its deliberately difficult questions, with Coren Mitchell often pointing out which questions or sequences are her least favourite.

In a 2021 episode, she told the players: “This is my least favourite question in the whole series. I think it’s ungettable. I hate almost everything about it. I said nobody could get it.”