Fear the soggy bottom
Warning: This email, an update of a previous Obsession from several years ago, does contain some spoilers from prior seasons.
Laminated, glazed, and piped perfection awaits audiences around the world as The Great British Bake Off (or The Great British Baking Show for American and Canadian viewers) embarks upon its 14th season.
It took the show’s creator, Anna Beattie, four years to drum up enough interest, but after finally striking a deal with BBC Two, GBBO quickly climbed the ranks of reality TV. Now, even low-performing seasons outrank popular reality shows like Big Brother, Love Island, and The Bachelor.
Nearly universally beloved by those who watched the first few seasons, GBBO has made some missteps in recent years, and some critics and viewers alike are beginning to wonder if the whole affair has gone a bit stale.
The latest season welcomes a new presenter, Allison Hammond. Will she help give the show a lofty rise and a sturdy crumb? The proof will be in the pudding.
By the digits
14: Seasons, or series, in total
167: Total contestants, so far
$0: Prize money for the winner
16+ million: Viewers for the Season 7 finale, the show’s highest ever, though Netflix is infamously tight-lipped about viewership numbers, so it’s hard to say what the global reach has been since the show has been streaming
Up to 13: Hours a day spent shooting one episode, for two days in a row
9: Number of contestants who have won star baker at least three times
1,000+: Times Paul Hollywood has reminded us what a good crumb structure looks like
The little show that could, and did
All of the seasons (or series, if you’re in the UK) mentioned here reference the British broadcast schedule of the show. If you’re confused, check out this handy guide.
In more ways than one, The Great British Bake Off has become a microcosm of the age of streaming. While the show remains thoroughly British, with Paul scoffing at American fruit pies (“to make a good American pie, you almost have to make it British”), audiences around the world have found its universal themes addictive.
The Great British Bake Off started broadcasting on BBC Two, and after becoming the most popular show on that channel, it was moved to BBC One. While airing on BBC One, it was licensed by PBS, introduced to American audiences, and continued its meteoric rise to popularity. After Season 7 aired to a record-breaking audience, contract negotiations between the BBC and Love Productions, the company that produces the show, fell apart, and it moved to Channel 4.
Paul Hollywood stayed on, moving to Channel 4 where he was joined by fellow judge Prue Leith, and presenters Noel Fielding, and Sandi Toksvig, but loyalty to the BBC prompted beloved presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins to leave the show, followed shortly by judge Mary Berry.
After moving to Channel 4, the show saw a drop in viewership, but was also picked up by Netflix.
Million-dollar question
What’s so great about watching Brits bake?
With low stakes (the grand prize is an etched cake stand) and lovable contestants, The Great British Bake Off is competitive reality television in its most positive light. The contestants support one another through successes and failures, help one another out in stressful situations, and the entire endeavor feels more like a team project than a cutthroat competition. “Their earnest exuberance and the seriousness with which they glaze a cake or shape a pizza is what carries the show,” writes Annaliese Griffin in Quartz.
The lighthearted innuendos and double entendres that bring “controversy” to the show feel quaintly human-sized. While its aggressive Britishness, with cups of tea and Victoria sponges everywhere, can read like “a recruitment video for membership in some twee and cutesy new reboot of the Empire,” according to Tom Whyman, the rhythmic, not-too-high highs and not-too-low lows feel like an antidote to polarization and the often intractable issues of the modern world. Every problem within the small, sweet world on the screen can, and will, be solved with cake.
Pop quiz!
Which of the following is NOT a real GBBO spinoff?
A. Junior Bake Off
B. The Great British Bake Off Musical
C. The Great British Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off
D. Senior Bake Off
Read to the very sturdy, well-baked bottom of this email for the answer.
Department of jargon
GBBO vs. GBBS
Pillsbury and trademark law are behind the slightly confusing naming conventions the show has to follow. UK audiences have The Great British Bake Off, while American audiences are watching The Great British Baking Show. The trademarked Pillsbury Bake-Off—a competition started in 1949 to celebrate the company’s 80th anniversary—conflicted with the British baking competition’s title, and the company wasn’t willing to come to an agreement or allow the show to use “Bake Off” in the title.
Brief history
2010: The Great British Bake Off premieres on BBC Two, with Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry as judges, and Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc as hosts.
2014: A rapidly growing success, GBBO moves to BBC One and comes to American audiences as The Great British Baking Show via PBS.
2016: The show tops out with 16 million viewers.
2017: Channel 4 takes over production, with Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith as judges, and Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig as hosts.
2018: The Great British Baking Show is introduced to streaming audiences via Netflix (but is released week-over-week instead of in a binge-able format).
2020: GBBO continues production despite covid, creating what may have been the world’s most delicious pandemic bubble, and welcomes host Matt Lucas as Sandi Toksvig departs.
2022: Following Queen Elizabeth’s death, the first episode of Season 13 airs as planned, a move that was controversial to some, comforting to others, and a total nothingburger to Americans.
2023: Allison Hammond, a familiar face on televisions in the UK, joins the cast, as the show’s first presenter of color.
Fun fact!
Every episode has been illustrated by the same artist, Tom Hovey, whose designs are based purely on the bakers’ aspirational descriptions.
Take me down this 🐰hole
#justiceforlain
In 2014 the hashtag #Bingate trended on Twitter when, rather than presenting a melted cake to the judges, a contestant named Iain threw his baked Alaska in the trash and presented the bin. What seemed like a relatively small moment in reality TV history went viral, because it was unclear whether or not another contestant had caused the accident by leaving Iain’s ice cream out while re-arranging the freezer. PBS explains the show’s most infamous controversy in hilarious detail.
Since those innocent days of binned ice cream cake, the show has experienced more serious controversies. In 2020, the GBBO tried a Japanese-themed week, and was criticized for setting challenges that were not actually Japanese in origin, and when contestants used ingredients and flavors that were Chinese or South Asian, rather than Japanese. After “Mexican Week” aired in 2022, Tejal Rao wrote in The New York Times that it was, “an hour of incompetent exposition, farcical bumbling and maracas-shaking.” Though previous Danish and Italian week challenges had not raised nearly as many eyebrows, the show has, as of the new season, sworn off country-based themes in favor of returning to specific baking techniques or categories of baked goods.
Quartz’s favorite GBBO moment
Above: Quartzians past and present Nate DiCamillo, Sudie Simmons, and Susan Howson, with GBBO’s Prue Leith in 2022, on what we regularly refer to as “That Day”
Last year in an incredibly well-timed moment, GBBO host Prue Leith happened to show up at our office in New York City just as Sudie Simmons was working on her trompe l’oeil cakes Obsession. We waylaid Prue in our kitchen, got her opinion on the tricky cakes, showered her with compliments, and can confirm that she was exactly as charming, gracious, and no-nonsense as you’d expect.
Various celebrities come through our office for interviews, but we’d never before seen one cause our co-founder Zach Seward to do an actual spit take. Such is the power of GBBO.
Poll
Who are your favorite GBBO presenters?
- Noel and Sandy
- Duh, Mel and Sue
- Noel and Matt
- Forget the presenters, I still miss Mary Berry
Crown your star baker presenter duo.
💬 Let’s talk!
In last week’s poll about organ donation, 42% of you said you’d donate a kidney to anyone who needed it, 53% of you said you’d give one up to a loved one, and 5% of you said you’ll hang on to your kidneys. Notice we didn’t specify whether this was a living donation—so, watch out.
🤔 What did you think of today’s email?
💡 What should we obsess over next?
Today’s email was written by Kait Hoehne, and updated, edited, and produced by Annaliese Griffin.
The answer to the quiz is D. Senior Bake Off. While there are plenty of pensioners on the GBBO there has not yet been a show dedicated to older bakers.