Some shows hit their strides much later than others. Reality competition series The Great British Bake Off is clearly one of those shows, as the recent ratings for the Season 7 premiere in Great Britain were off the charts. News this morning notes that the Season 7 premiere of The Great British Bake Off drew an extremely large premiere audience, once again, bringing in 10.4 million total viewers. That's a pretty huge number.
In fact, news from the other side of the pond notes that Wednesday's big premiere of the popular baking series actually peaked at one point with 11.2 million total viewers before settling back into that 10.4 million average. That's actually a higher peak, according to Deadline, than the country's highest Rio Olympics viewership, which peaked at 11.1 million. For a show about home bakers making fantastic and sometimes fantastical desserts, The Great British Bake Off has really taken the country by storm. Ready, set, bake!
It's easy to see why The Great British Bake Off has really taken off. The series has an interesting format, with three challenges per episode, including one technical challenge in which the bakers often do not know exactly what the final product is supposed to look like. Quirky hosts hosts Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc are unlike any other reality TV hosts, providing a lot of warmth and energy (along with that quirky catchphrase). It helps that the bakers themselves come off like real people just trying to do their best, which is a whole lot more charming than a lot of the huge egos on other reality shows. Plus judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood are a little blunt with their criticisms, but not in ways that are unfair. Really, in terms of reality TV, it's the whole package.
If you live in the States and have only just started hearing about the Great British Bake Off, don't fret. PBS actually has the rights to the US airings of the series, but the show only started airing here after Season 4. And just to be confusing, PBS actually called the airing of the fourth season Season 1. Season 6 actually just finished out its run on PBS--although the network called that Season 3--so we're guessing it will be quite some time before we actually get episodes of Season 7 (or 4 or whatever the heck the channel is calling it) on our own schedules. Which is a bummer, because as the ratings are indicating, this one sounds like it should be pretty great.
On the bright side, there's plenty of fall TV coming up. You can find out when your favorites are returning by checking out our fall TV premiere schedule.
