The Great British Baking Show‘s holiday edition is actually better than the original
The king of TV baking competitions is back with two new yuletide specials that are more fun than the main series
TV Features Prue Santa
Front row: Siobhán McSweeney, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Prue Leith, Nicola Coughlan, and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell Photo: Love Productions
If you’re short on time this holiday season—and who isn’t?—you don’t have to spend 10 hours watching an entire season of The Great British Baking Show to get the full-scale comfort viewing experience. In just one episode, its holiday edition manages to do just that, giving us an all-star cast of four bakers going against each other in a winner-take-all contest to create a trio of seasonal delights. Traditionally (at least since 2016), U.K. fans have expected a Christmas special on Channel 4, either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, followed by another one around New Year’s Day. There are currently eight holiday episodes available to watch on Netflix, which is less than a season of the original show. And each one is a standalone special, so you’re less likely to get stuck binging them all at once. This year’s latest pair of holiday-spiked eps—technically last year’s from the British point of view—arrive on Netflix on November 18.
In the world of reality TV and, in particular, cooking competitions, The Great British Baking Show—or The Great British Bake Off, as it’s known in its native country and anywhere Pillsbury doesn’t own the “Bake Off” trademark—has risen above all the rest. (Also, sorry for that.) Since its premiere in 2010, GBBO has gained a massive international following thanks to its signature blend of slow-burning tension, mouth-watering dishes, pastoral scenery, and a diverse cast of home bakers brimming with good sportsmanship. And the only thing better than a season of feel-good baking triumphs and disasters is the holiday specials, which add a cozy, festive twist to the standard GBBO recipe. (Again, sincere apologies.)
Thanks to their one-and-done format, the holiday episodes have lower stakes, making them far less stressful for the bakers—and for us, too. The challenges still often come down to a mad dash to get everything done on time, but it’s contained within a single installment rather than weeks on end, and everyone seems to be having a blast. Having already been through the wringer in their individual seasons, these former contestants willingly return just for the fun of it, and maybe also to earn a little redemption for past mistakes—like Rob Billington, who infamously dropped his multi-tiered showstopper cake in the first episode of his season. It’s a welcome chance to spend some more time with fan-favorite contestants in the tent. Plus, there are no eliminations, just one winner, and everyone gets to party afterward.
And then there’s the delicious seasonality of it all. Half of the holiday episodes are Christmas-inspired, and the others have a winter or New Year’s theme. At a time of year when even non-bakers may find themselves in the kitchen whipping up treats for friends and family, GBBO is both inspirational and aspirational. Every corner of the tent is beautifully decorated, and the bakers, hosts, and judges all dress to get you into the spirit of the season. The baked goods are the real draw, though, from traditional favorites like yule logs, gingerbread houses, and mince pies to regional specialties like Danish kransekakes (a stack of almond-flavored rings in the shape of a tree) and Icelandic flatbread, with the best challenges tapping into bakers’ holiday memories.
These specials are also a chance to bring in some celebrity bakers. The 2020 New Year’s episode featuring the cast of Derry Girls was an especially chaotic joy. Tasked with creating their own versions of trifles, blini canapés, and decade-themed cakes, they took jabs at the judges, the hosts, and themselves. None of them would last a week on the original GBBO, but they make up for their lack of baking skills with that good humor. (Props to Siobhán McSweeney for guzzling a bottle of champagne.)
This year’s celebrity competitors—Nathaniel Curtis, Olly Alexander, Lydia West, and Shaun Dooley from the British miniseries It’s A Sin—are pretty promising. And if you’d prefer your celebrity holiday baking shows with an American accent, there’s a stateside version this year—The Great American Baking Show: Celebrity Holiday, which begins streaming on Roku on December 2. Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry host a lineup of amateur bakers including Joel Kim Booster, Chloe Fineman, D’Arcy Carden, Liza Koshy, Nat Faxon, and Marshawn Lynch.
Will the new specials deliver any moments as golden as James Hillery slipping Prue a real chocolate-covered Brussels sprout with his holiday feast illusion cake? Or Terry Hartill’s exploding gingerbread Chrysler Building with dancing Paul and Prue Santa puppets? You never know. It’s not the kind of playful prank you’re likely to see in the main series, that’s for sure. There’s just something about Christmas that brings out the little kid—and the aspiring baker—in all of us.
16 Comments
signature blend of slow-burning tension, mouth-watering dishes, pastoral scenery, and a diverse cast of home bakers brimming with good sportsmanship.I think the actual reason for its success is that isn’t isn’t filmed in the quick-cut, trash-tv, reality style TV American baking shows are. The people aren’t playing characters, and they’re not forcing in interpersonal drama. Yeah, there is drama like “will my cake cook at the way through”, but there isn’t “Does Kevin hate Adbul”. Everyone is themselves and they focus on baking, not drama.
We’re watching the Big Brunch, which is clearly trying to channel in on GBBO’s formula, and it’s weird to me to see where it misses.
I’ve not heard of it, but the first thing that comes up on Google is: Ten chefs share their business dreams and vie for a $300,000 prizeSo that is already a big miss. On GBBO, I don’t think they even win anything besides like a decorative platter. They really just wanna bake. The fact that it’s not extreme stakes is the best part.
There isn’t a bigger prize because originally there couldn’t be one, as the show was on BBC (see link below). It’s an integral part of the show’s formula now, so it was kept even after the move to Channel 4.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/tv/reason-bbc-doesnt-give-out-25031814
That’s interesting to know. I think it’s integral to the tone, so I’m glad.
The other thing they’re missing is a RELENTLESS focus on any ‘heart tugging’ bit of biography. If you are on a North American reality show and you have a(n) autistic or otherwise disabled child, recently passed (grand)parent, or come to that, an autistic parent or dead child, you will be required on at LEAST every other interstitial comment to tear up and mention how you’re really in this competition for THEM…
GBBO will mention these sorts of details, once for each baker that lasts long enough to get a little 30 second bio-segment during one of the episodes. Not every contestant gets one, and they only do one or two per episode.
I keep making the mistake of comparing EVERY series/season to the one that Nancy won (I think it’s series 5?). That season was stacked with talent and good sportsmanship.
Most recent one on Netflix is a bit of a dud.
not helped by the judges continually setting them up to fail on challenges- it feels like everything has multiple bakers getting “just needed more time to set/prove” comments. and since the judges set the times, that to me feels like a show mistake- they’re turning it more into a time management contest than a baking show.
I’ve been enjoying it, but yeah, there does need to be time management as an aspect, but it should be part of a full range of aspects, and the time management has come to dominate too much.
yeah, multiple bakers screwing times up in the first couple of weeks makes sense because there’s a lot of bakers and they haven’t starting culling the weaker ones. in the quarters/semis/finals? most bakers should be getting most things right if the challenges are set well.one of the other tells is that I can’t remember the last time somebody over-proved a bake.
Not allowing anyone who has ever worked in food service is dumb. I’ve made a lot of bread, cookies and pies but proper dessert baking I’m as clueless as anyone else.
I can’t tell if the show is too afraid to repeat past challenges or if they’re trying to set the contestants up for failure. But I feel that I would watch the show and sometime even try my own hand at say, a Victorian Sandwich, and now, within the first or secondepisode of the season even, they’re asking bakers to make “Mask cakes”? What? Why?
I’m ride or die for the Nadia season, personally.
I remember liking Tamal a lot.
To this day, my wife and I still find occasion to say to each other, “Decisions, decisions, all of them wrong.”
host a lineup of amateur bakers including … Marshawn LynchI’m not a huge football fan by any stretch, but I have yet to tire of seeing Marshawn Lynch say “yes” to everything that crosses his desk now that he’s retired.