The 2006 documentary Wordplay by Patrick Creadon focuses on Shortz and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
Various famous fans of his puzzles such as Bill Clinton, Ken Burns, Jon Stewart, Daniel Okrent, Indigo Girls and Mike Mussina appear in the film.

Shortz has been a guest on a number of TV shows, including Martha Stewart Living, Oprah, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.
 He has also appeared on Millionaire as an expert for the "Ask the Expert" lifeline.

He appeared on an episode of The Simpsons titled "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words", which first aired on November 16, 2008.

He appeared in Dinner: Impossible as himself, challenging the chef to create dishes that mimic common English idioms at the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
The episode aired on May 6, 2009.

He also appeared on an episode of How I Met Your Mother titled "Robots Versus Wrestlers", which first aired on May 10, 2010 during season 5.
He appeared as himself at an upscale dinner party that included Arianna Huffington and Peter Bogdanovich, also playing themselves.

Shortz is a weekly guest on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday where he hosts the Sunday Puzzle, a cooperative game between the show's host and one of the show's listeners.
 The lucky player is picked randomly from a group of submissions containing the correct answer to a qualifier puzzle issued the week before.

On December 18, 2015 he presented the answers on Jeopardy!
in the category "The New York Times Crossword".

Shortz was featured on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (ep.
254, May 2018).
Also in 2018, Shortz appeared in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode "The Puzzle Master" as Sam Jepson, a rival puzzler to Vin Stermley.
The 2006 documentary Wordplay by Patrick Creadon focuses on Shortz and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Various famous fans of his puzzles such as Bill Clinton, Ken Burns, Jon Stewart, Daniel Okrent, Indigo Girls and Mike Mussina appear in the film.
Shortz has been a guest on a number of TV shows, including Martha Stewart Living, Oprah, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.  He has also appeared on Millionaire as an expert for the "Ask the Expert" lifeline.
He appeared on an episode of The Simpsons titled "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words", which first aired on November 16, 2008.
He appeared in Dinner: Impossible as himself, challenging the chef to create dishes that mimic common English idioms at the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. The episode aired on May 6, 2009.
He also appeared on an episode of How I Met Your Mother titled "Robots Versus Wrestlers", which first aired on May 10, 2010 during season 5. He appeared as himself at an upscale dinner party that included Arianna Huffington and Peter Bogdanovich, also playing themselves.
Shortz is a weekly guest on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday where he hosts the Sunday Puzzle, a cooperative game between the show's host and one of the show's listeners.  The lucky player is picked randomly from a group of submissions containing the correct answer to a qualifier puzzle issued the week before.
On December 18, 2015 he presented the answers on Jeopardy! in the category "The New York Times Crossword".
Shortz was featured on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (ep. 254, May 2018). Also in 2018, Shortz appeared in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode "The Puzzle Master" as Sam Jepson, a rival puzzler to Vin Stermley.
Will Shortz