Great British Baking Show: Finally, the Tent returns

This week two series that have in different ways come to define the reality television genre made their long anticipated returns. One was Survivor and the other was The Great British Baking Show and while Survivor has been on for over 20 years and 40 seasons, GBBS has been airing for half that time and only 12 seasons.

If you are a Survivor fan then you know well that every year it feels like the series attempts to reinvent itself. Harder challenges, more adverse conditions, more ways for the contestants to try and screw each other over to win the $1 million prize.

Then you have The Great British Baking Show, which is the antithesis of all that. The show has remained essentially the same every season, with the only major shakeup coming in the form of changes in the hosts and one of the judges. Otherwise sometimes it’s tough to tell which Season (or Collection as Netflix calls them) you are watching.

The newest Season, which is actually Series 12 in England but called Collection 9 here in the States, made its debut on Friday and is a perfect example of just what we’re talking about. And for fans of the show, we wouldn’t want it any other way.

The Great British Baking Show returns with 12 new bakers and new challenges.

Last season did get some people up in arms and with good reason. Laura did not deserve to be in the Final and no amount of convincing from Paul Hollywood will change the opinion of most foodies. And there were some issues due to the pandemic and the fact the whole series was shot in a bubble.

However, from what we saw in Episode 1 any problems related to the bubble have been rectified. As for if there will be another “Laura Situation” we will have to wait and see. But from the outset it looks like Collection 9 of The Great British Baking Show has a killer lineup of home bakers.

In our way too early handicapping of the bakers and their odds of winning, we would say that Giuseppe, Jurgen and Maggie (or the Other Pru as she is being called) are the early favorites to win it all. They created some impressive cakes during Cake Week and have some real skills.

At the other end of the spectrum, the next baker to go home (Spoiler Alert if you haven’t watched the episode yet) after Tom has to be Lizzie or Jairzeno. Both only get to bake again by the skin of their teeth and need to improve dramatically to stick around.

And so, with great fanfare, we give you our first Great British Baking Show Leaderboard of the new season.

1. Giuseppe
2. Maggie
3. Jurgen
4. Freya
5. Amanda
6. Crystelle
7. Chigs
8. Rochica
9. George
10. Jairzeno
11. Lizzie

Can Lizzie make a comeback and prove she’s a good baker? Will Jurgen continue his hot streak? How far can Freya go being the youngest baker and also completely vegan? We will start to get some answers next Friday when Episode 2 arrives on Netflix.

What do you think Guilty Eaters? Did we get our Leaderboard right? What do you think of the new season? Leave a comment below and let us know or join the conversation on our Twitter and Facebook pages.