The Great British Baking Show needs to get back to basics

By D. Goodman | Dec 4, 2020

The Great British Baking Show - Collection 6. Image Courtesy Netflix /

Now that Series 11 of The Great British Baking Show is over, it’s time to admit that the show needs to return to what made it great.

It goes without saying that the just completed eleventh series of The Great British Baking Show didn’t exactly meet the expectations of the rabid fans who love it. There have been numerous articles written about what went wrong in the minds of many people and just as many telling those same people to shut up and just enjoy the show.

However, it cannot be argued that this season had some issues. Whether you felt that Laura Adlington making to the Final was simply absurd (which it was) or that new co-host Matt Lucas pushed the boundaries of good taste more than once (which he didn’t) the real problem was more central to the premise of the show.

The Great British Baking Show needs to return to what made it great in the first place, namely solid, fundamental baking.

The basics of baking are beginning to become lost on The Great British Baking Show

In previous seasons of the show, there have always been what you could call “gimmick” episodes. Such as when the contestants had to use Alternative Ingredients in Series 6 or when they had to use Botanicals in Series 7. And those episodes were a fun detour from the basics of bread and cakes.

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But as of late the gimmick episodes have become a bit ridiculous.

Series 10 saw Roaring Twenties Week while the just finished Series 11 had Japanese Week as well as a week dedicated to the 80s. The result was less than stellar results by the contestants and having to watch bakers try to make ice cream cakes in almost 100 degree heat.

And of course it goes without saying that the Technical Challenges are dialed up to eleven for these weeks. The bakers were making things no one had ever heard of, which is the point of the challenge but especially in Series 11 it just seemed like a way to see the bakers crash and burn.

In other words, to add some unnecessary drama to The Great British Baking Show.

Here’s the thing though. The reason so many people adore the show is exactly because of that lack of drama. The Great British Baking Show isn’t Survivor or Big Brother or even Hell’s Kitchen. It’s a respite from all the noise and craziness of the world where you can just sit for an hour and watch people bake.

It was something fans needed more than ever in the dumpster fire that is 2020 and the show just didn’t deliver.

The Great British Baking Show needs to give up on the drama and BS and get back to what made it great in the first place. Breads and biscuits and pastries and Technical Challenges that are tough but not impossible. If it doesn’t, some of those rabid fans will start to find something else to watch and no one wants that.

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What do you think Guilty Eats Nation? Do you like the direction The Great British Baking Show is going in or do you think they need a course correction? Share you thoughts in the comments below.