It was certainly very iconic in the Netherlands (coincidentally I just gave a lecture about it this week, based on [1]), but it has aired in a number of other countries as well, such as the US and France. I think the former even is the original [2].

[1] https://vincenttunru.com/hacking-a-gameshow/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(American_game_show)

Shouldn't be too strange that people might want to play a game themself instead of watch other people play a game they never knew of on TV in Dutch.

There are probably a lot of good games out there that could be thoughtfully ported so that people can play. But you'll find that a naive clone by itself doesn't guarantee success.

Wordle is a game everyone can play every 24 hours. The game show is… a game show

Jesus, you are right!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hqq3VjrcFc

I guess this means, everybody can build games like this and the NYT would not be able to say they infringed on a game concept they own?

Sure has and you wouldn’t get words like this on Wordle either https://youtu.be/U7qxpAUKy4c

Exactly, you can search "motus france 2" on youtube and you'll see the tv show that existed for decades in france.