Roku announces a new version of The Great American Baking Show
The latest version of The Great American Baking Show will air on Roku in 2023. This iteration features American bakers who will be baking under the tent in the UK. Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith will be the judges while Ellie Kemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Zach Cherry (Severance) will be the hosts. The season will consist of six 60-minute episodes. Production has already begun.
A history of GBBO's American spin offs
Because Pillsbury owns the trademark to the phrase "bake off," the American and Canadian spin offs were unable to be called The Great American/Canadian Bake Off. The Canadian version is called The Great Canadian Baking Show and the American versions have had various names.
In 2013, the first American version of GBBO called The American Baking Competition aired on CBS. It was hosted by Jeff Foxworthy and filmed in Georgia. This was the only season filmed in the United States and the only season that was not a holiday version of the show. There were ten bakers and seven episodes. The winner received $250k and a publishing contract with Simon & Schuester. Judges Paul Hollywood and Marcela Valladolid had an affair which eventually led to Hollywood's wife divorcing him. This show lasted only one season (the rumors were that after Paul's wife found out about the affair, she told him he could not return to the show but the ratings were pretty bad, the reviews were not great, and the last half of the season aired against MasterChef).
In 2015, the second version of the show called The Great Holiday Baking Show aired on ABC. Mary Berry and Johnny Iuzzini were the judges. Husband and wife team Ian Gomez and Nia Vardalos were the hosts. There were six bakers and four episodes.
In 2016, the show was renamed The Great American Baking Show (but was still a holiday competition). Mary Barry, Johnny Iuzzini, Nia Vardalos, and Ian Gomez all returned for S2, and the show was expanded to ten bakers and eight episodes.
In 2017, the show was hosted by Ayesha Curry and Anthony Adams. Paul Hollywood and Johnny Iuzzini were the judges. There were ten bakers and there were supposed to be six episodes. After the first two episodes aired, the show was pulled from ABC's lineup due to sexual misconduct allegations against Johnny Iuzzini (he was initially accused of sexual harassment by four of his former employees at Jean-Georges and after that was publicized, four more former employees came forward with allegations). A week later, ABC announced who the winner of S3 was. A week after that, ABC released "episode highlights" of the four unaired episodes on their Facebook page and YouTube channel.
In 2018, the show was retitled The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition (despite the fact that S2 & S3 were also holiday baking shows). Emma Bunton and Anthony Adams hosted, and Paul Hollywood and Sherry Yard were the judges. This season had ten bakers and six episodes.
In 2019, the show returned for its fifth season, again under the name The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition. Emma Bunton, Anthony Adams, Paul Hollywood, and Sherry Yard all returned. This season had ten bakers and went back to having eight episodes.
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