GBBO making changes for 2023

March 10, 2023 by
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While the Great British Bake Off musical may have received mixed reviews (at least one critic didn’t think it was worthwhile but one of our Members and last year’s winner Syabira Yusoff thought it was great), even die hard GBBO fans were a bit disappointed with the 2022 season. The show’s producers have taken note of the criticism (and a drop in viewership) and have promised changes for the next season.

An unnamed insider told The Mirror that producers of the show are going to “strip it back to basics” in the upcoming season, while still retaining some twists. “There is a realisation last year’s show didn’t really work,” the insider reportedly said. Even Paul Hollywood previously commented following Season 9 that some of the challenges had gotten out of hand and vowed to scale back the program. It doesn’t appear that he followed through with this pledge.

Unspoken were any efforts to address concerns about the GBBO being culturally tone deaf, especially following the disastrous Mexican week that garnered a lot of criticism. And we still don’t know who will replace Matt Lucas as co-host along with Noel Fielding. Will we see the return of Sandi Toksvig, a former contestant, or one of the hosts of the spinoff programs? My hot take is that if the upcoming season doesn’t attract more viewers than last year’s disappointing numbers, 2023 could be the swan song for the GBBO.

Category: Antipasto

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3 Comments

  • hillsboroks  on  March 11, 2023

    After watching the Junior GBBO this winter I would highly recommend bringing Liam into the tent again to co-host with Noel. He is so very quick, glib and funny but as a former contestant he totally understands the pressures in the tent and what is appropriate and what isn’t. He was fabulous with the kid bakers, keeping them entertained while also calming them down and imparting a lot of knowledge and encouragement.

  • retiredatforty  on  March 11, 2023

    I’ll be heartbroken if the show gets cancelled, but I agree that they need to go back to basics with the challenges. I’m also glad that Matt Lucas will not be returning. He was my least-favorite host that the show has had for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that some of his jokes were not family-friendly. I would love to see Mel and Sue again, but I know that will never happen. Noel and Sandi were a great match and I would be thrilled if she returned.

  • gamulholland  on  March 11, 2023

    We watched GBBO weekly as it aired, but our daughter was off at college, so we re-watched with her at Christmas break, and we’d watch a couple of episodes in a row sometimes. And it was an eye-opener to re-watch Mexican Week right after the week before, in which one of the challenges was to make a Smörgåstårta, a Swedish cake. There was so much glibly making fun of the name and the pronunciation— only Maxy could get it right—that I was sort of cringing. And then Mexican Week followed, and it wasn’t an aberration — just an extension of the same kind of behavior, made worse because of the props and the stereotypes and the mustache and the fact that the entire show was supposedly about Mexico, not just one cake. I couldn’t help but think that if anything that isn’t British is open for mockery about its foreignness, then the mess that was Mexican week isn’t exactly a surprise. If they are going to include baking from other cultures and languages, it might be time to rule out making a mockery of them so that it doesn’t mushroom into another Mexican Week.

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