Current:Home > FinanceThe recipe for a better 'Bake-Off'? Fun format, good casting, and less host shtick -BrightFuture Investments
The recipe for a better 'Bake-Off'? Fun format, good casting, and less host shtick
View
Date:2025-04-24 18:25:47
I think last season of The Great British Baking Show was the first one I didn't gobble up (no pun intended) the minute the episodes dropped. I had grown weary of the hosting team of Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas, frustrated with overly complicated bakes that were almost impossible to execute well, and dismayed at repeated and increasingly obnoxious takes on "ethnic" food weeks that didn't even seem to represent good-faith efforts to get things right.
What a relief to be looking forward to episodes arriving on Netflix on Friday mornings again.
The show has had a long and bumpy ride; I am not alone in believing that the best and purest version will always be the first one, the public television one, with Mary Berry alongside Paul Hollywood, and with Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins hosting. But the era that followed, with Prue Leith taking Mary's place and Noel Fielding hosting with Sandi Toksvig, had its charms, too. Then Sandi left, and she was replaced by Matt Lucas, who was much too close to being another Noel, a look-at-me presence who seemed less interested in the contestants than in doing bits and being the center of attention. You can do bits on this show — that's why they hire comedians! — but you have to care about the contestants first. Things got wonky.
Lucas is gone now, replaced by Alison Hammond, a boisterous but generous companion to Fielding who has helped the show restore its balance. She's silly but not distracting. She and Noel don't interrupt the flow to do shtick the way he did with Lucas. Production has knocked off the convoluted challenges and gone back to ones the bakers can do well. This week's showstopper, for instance, is a cake inside any sort of chocolate box you want to make. Is making a chocolate box fancy? Sure! Is it impossible, or does it result in nothing but a series of failures? No. And, yes, they've made the wise decision to stop the "national weeks" that were increasingly embarrassing for everyone involved.
There are two ways a show, particularly a competition show, can try to assure itself a long life. One is to go the Survivor route of becoming ever more complicated, introducing new twists and turns and producer interventions that keep anybody from figuring out a reliable strategy, lest the outcome become predictable. It's hard to argue with a show that's on its 45th season when it comes to sticking around, but the game itself is much less smart and skilled than it once was, and as it eats its own tail by casting Survivor superfans who proceed to spend their time on the show talking about how much they love the show, it's less and less compelling.
The other way is to do what Bake-Off (yes, yes, in the U.S. we technically call it The Great British Baking Show, but it's Bake-Off in our hearts) is currently doing. You trust your format, you concentrate on good casting, you lean on your fundamentals — in short, you calm the thing down. Bake-Off has always been soothing; that's its nature. It doesn't need to be brand-new every time, with things you've never seen before. One technical challenge this season was custard creams, perhaps unfamiliar to many Americans but a basic and very popular sandwich cookie in the UK. It looks a lot like a golden Oreo, though it's rectangular and I'm pretty sure the texture is different. Getting it right comes down to details and technique. It's not flashy; fussing over the execution is for nerds, in the best way.
There's a lesson here for other shows: If your format is a good idea, you don't have to keep complicating it. The human beings and the happenings will keep it fresh. And when you do that, the hosts can stay out of the way, because they're not the main event. They never were.
This piece also appeared in NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don't miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what's making us happy.
Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
veryGood! (4)
Related
- Tarte Shape Tape Concealer Sells Once Every 4 Seconds: Get 50% Off Before It's Gone
- Boohoo Drops a Size-Inclusive Barbie Collab—and Yes, It's Fantastic
- From Spring to Fall, New York Harbor Is a Feeding Ground for Bottlenose Dolphins, a New Study Reveals
- Can forcing people to save cool inflation?
- McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
- Inside Clean Energy: Here’s What the 2021 Elections Tell Us About the Politics of Clean Energy
- David's Bridal files for bankruptcy for the second time in 5 years
- Step up Your Fashion With the Top 17 Trending Amazon Styles Right Now
- SFO's new sensory room helps neurodivergent travelers fight flying jitters
- DeSantis seeks to control Disney with state oversight powers
Ranking
- Juan Soto praise of Mets' future a tough sight for Yankees, but World Series goal remains
- Elizabeth Holmes' prison sentence has been delayed
- Jake Bongiovi Bonds With Fiancée Millie Bobby Brown's Family During NYC Outing
- How Prince Harry and Prince William Are Joining Forces in Honor of Late Mom Princess Diana
- Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge
- Amid Punishing Drought, California Is Set to Adopt Rules to Reduce Water Leaks. The Process has Lagged
- Warming Trends: How Hairdressers Are Mobilizing to Counter Climate Change, Plus Polar Bears in Greenland and the ‘Sounds of the Ocean’
- Championing Its Heritage, Canada Inches Toward Its Goal of Planting 2 Billion Trees
Recommendation
The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
New Federal Anti-SLAPP Legislation Would Protect Activists and Whistleblowers From Abusive Lawsuits
Forecasters Tap High-Tech Tools as US Warns of Another Unusually Active Hurricane Season
Disney sues Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, claiming 'government retaliation'
Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
A tobacco giant will pay $629 million for violating U.S. sanctions against North Korea
Biden Administration Stops Short of Electric Vehicle Mandates for Trucks
Step up Your Fashion With the Top 17 Trending Amazon Styles Right Now