The Great British Bake Off, also known as The Great British Baking Show in its Netflix (and former PBS run) for unclear reasons, is losing another big name. Shortly after the move from the BBC to Channel 4 (which did not go out with a bang), fans of the series were introduced to some new players in Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding and Prue Leith, and now, just a hop, skip and a jump later Toksvig is calling it quits.
Unlike when The Great British Baking Show shifted from BBC to Channel 4, it doesn’t sound as if there will be too much drama around the exit. Sandi Toksvig called working on the series for three seasons “one of the great pleasures of my life” and also noted in a statement with the network that the “true stars” are the contestants themselves, before revealing why she’s saying sayonara.
When stepping down from a job it is quite common for people to say they are doing so in order to spend more time with their family. Unusually I am departing from The Great British Bake Off so I can spend more time with my other work.
She has already started making plans for what’s next, which includes an upcoming Channel 4 series that will allegedly be about adult literacy. So, she’ll at least be sticking with the Channel 4 family. The network is currently looking for a replacement host.
Look, actors leave TV shows all the time, but The Great British Baking Show has a much more storied and wild history with having to make changes. Most of this happened when Channel 4 outbid ITV for the series. Feelings were hurt and shakeups happened.
To be honest with you, I have really enjoyed the new lineup. I do miss Mary Berry, but Prue Leith’s love of boozy desserts and clever comments have done more than enough to soften that blow. And I think of actually preferred Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig’s more out there bits than what we got in the previous iteration with Mel and Sue.
Assumedly, Noel Fielding will be sticking around, just with a new presenter and we won’t see any more shakeups for the upcoming season. Hey, at least we should always have stalwart Paul Hollywood.
The show will be heading into Season 11 next, although it should be noted that the numbers in the States are all weird and that Series 10 in the U.K. is listed as Collection 7 on Netflix. This is because Netflix doesn’t have the first couple of seasons in the U.S. and also weirdly has one season marked as The Beginnings. We'll be sure to keep you updated as The Great British Bake Off chooses another new presenter in the coming weeks.
For now, you can see what else is headed to Netflix in 2020 with our full streaming schedule.
