Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun and easy one if you love college basketball, and a certain big event that’s about to begin. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: The Big Dance.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Tourney time

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

• MARK, BRACK, RACK, RACKS, CADS, CRAM, MOVE, MUTE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• CHALK, BUBBLE, CINDERELLA, OVERTIME, BRACKET

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is MARCHMADNESS. To find it, start with the M that’s four letters down on the far-left vertical row, and wind across.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle isn’t easy, but I got a kick out of the wordplay in the purple group. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Critters in a crowd.

Green group hint: Not fast.

Blue group hint: Silent letter.

Purple group hint: States, but shorter.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Animal group names.

Green group: Things associated with being slow.

Blue group: Silent «w.»

Purple group: Words that sound like state abbreviations.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is animal group names. The four answers are gaggle, pack, pod and pride.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is things associated with being slow. The four answers are glacier, molasses, sloth and traffic.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is silent «w.» The four answers are Cartwright, two, wrath and wrestle.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is words that sound like state abbreviations. The four answers are any (NE), Emmy (ME), envy (NV) and okay (OK).

Peacock is adding an AI feather to its flock. The NBCUniversal property said Friday it will launch several new features to its mobile app, most notably a TikTok-like vertical video experience narrated by an AI version of TV personality Andy Cohen.

The feature, called «Your Bravoverse,» will enable app users to swipe endlessly — if they want — through a playlist of clips from their favorite Bravo shows, all narrated by the Cohen AI. The app will also stream live NBA games in a 9:16 vertical format and introduce two new mobile games.

Peacock said there will be a section for vertical video on the mobile app starting this summer, replacing the current download button in the main bottom navigation. 

The new Peacock features capitalize on the AI frenzy and join the bandwagon of mobile users who have become accustomed to the vertical, swipeable nature of consuming content, such as on TikTok and Instagram.

Your host, an AI Andy Cohen

Launching this summer, Your Bravoverse will play videos in vertical format on your phone. The content library will be comprised of Bravo shows past and present, including Vanderpump Rules and the Real Housewives franchise.

AI will create playlists of clips from more than 5,000 hours of footage across the entire Bravo catalog of shows and extract stories from those shows using computer vision. The company says the goal is to «weave together complex storylines across seasons and franchises that help fans relive memorable moments or uncover new connections they may have never seen before.»

Computer vision, in concert with generative AI, is tech that can analyze thousands of hours of Peacock shows, pick out key moments and create video feeds.

Matt Strauss, Chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, called the feature a «first-of-its-kind experience» for the company — «pairing our deep Bravo library with agentic and gen AI to create a personalized experience.»

The narrator for each playlist will be an AI avatar of Andy Cohen, host of the talk show Watch What Happens Live and creator of the Real Housewives franchise. The avatar will be trained to have Cohen’s «distinctive style and voice.»

Cohen said the Bravoverse experience will be «intuitive» and «interactive.»

«If there’s one thing Bravo fans love, it’s being part of the conversation,» Cohen said in a statement. «It’s the best of AI and the best of Bravo, helping fans discover shows, dive deeper into their favorite moments, and connect with the Bravo universe like never before — all guided by me. Well, not exactly me, but a version of me!»

To create playlists, Your Bravoverse consumers will first choose their top shows and moments, then receive their own personal playlist. NBCUniversal says each playlist can have more than 600 billion possible variations. Just as on TikTok and Instagram, Bravoverse viewers will be able to swipe through videos endlessly. NBCUniversal says the playlists will be constantly refreshed.

NBCUniversal is counting on what it calls its Bravo «loyal superfans.» The company said Bravo viewers watch an average of 24 hours each month, and some people watch up to 75 episodes of shows each month.

The Your Bravoverse feature will be accessible through a dedicated Vertical Video space on the app’s home page. 

Live Vertical NBA games

It seems counterintuitive to watch a sport played on a horizontal court in a vertical format on your phone. Peacock actually already unveiled the feature before, during the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 15.

During live NBA game broadcasts, AI will enable Peacock app viewers to watch the main broadcast and additional camera angles. This vertical video viewing option will reside within the Courtside Live feature, which Peacock launched during the All-Star Game.

Peacock has shown vertical video clips for sporting events since early 2025 — «a first for a streaming platform,» the company said — for NBA, NHL and the 2026 Winter Olympics.     

Peacock will launch the feature this spring.

New mobile games

Peacock is also launching two new mobile games, as part of NBCUniversal’s collaboration with Wolf Games, announced in October  — Law & Order: Clue Hunter and Public Eye, both mystery-solving games. The games are being created with Wolf Games’ Gen-AI gaming engine and will be launched this spring.

Peacock said it will also be introducing a new Jeopardy! mini‑game, with daily trivia rounds written by the Jeopardy! 
team, which can be played in the Peacock mobile app.

In its 2025 fourth-quarter earnings report, Comcast — owner of NBCUniversal — said Peacock’s paid subscribers increased 22% year over year to 44 million, while revenue grew 23% to $1.6 billion.