Where it comes from
Seth admits he checks total words and total score.
How the hosts use it
It comes up in the recurring 'Jack Black, spelling bee, spelling bee' segment, where the hosts report their daily NYT Spelling Bee results. They also trash-talk each other over it, as in 'in your face Seth'. The criteria vary: sometimes word count is allowed, sometimes not. Partial results are reported as 'three hints' or 'two hints'.
Written by the AI from the transcripts. Every sentence was checked against them, one by one (the full episode transcript wherever a sentence names one); 8 sentences that failed the check are left out. How the check works.