Five years ago, Wordle was just a game that creator Josh Wardle played with his partner. Wardle sold the game to The New York Times. Now it’s becoming a prime-time game show on NBC.

CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The ...