With the eighth and final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine currently airing on NBC, fans might have thought Andy Samberg might have an opening in his schedule, however brief. But no, even beyond his upcoming voice-acting roles, Samberg has already lined up a new in-the-flesh gig. To make the new job even sweeter, he's joining fellow Saturday Night Live vet Maya Rudolph, and the two comedy stars will headline a new streaming series for Peacock, though possibly not one fans might expect.
NBCUniversal has announced that Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg will be hosting a holiday-themed baking competition series Baking It, which will serve as a companion project to the Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman-hosted crafting competition Making It. The new oven-baked show will stream on Peacock, however, instead following in the original's footsteps on NBC. Seeing as how it's a companion to Making It, it's no surprise that fellow SNL alum Poehler will serve as an executive producer of Baking It, along with Making It producer Nicolle Yaron.
Baking It will feature eight teams of talented home bakers competing against each other across six different holiday-themed episodes hosted by Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg from within the winter cabin motif. Each hopeful's confections will be judged by the indiscriminate taste buds of four real-life grandmothers to see which teams will move onto the next phase, and which will be tossed out with yesterday's bagels. Of course, in true SNL fashion, Rudolph and Samberg will offer funny side commentary during moments both intense and lighthearted while hosting the highly competitive bake-off.
Watching people baking holiday treats under immense pressure is genuinely entertaining for many viewers, or else we might not have quite so many options to choose from in that highly specific TV genre. But the real draw of this particular show will be watching Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg interact throughout the episodes. Just giving those two microphones alone seems like prime material for hilarity for viewers, regardless of what they're talking about. (And probably expect things to get a little sophomoric and silly by way gross dough noises, melting chocolate mounds, and all the grandmas.)
Given the built-in camaraderie from all the SNL talent, there’s no telling what kind of viral moments will come from Rudolph and Samberg's hosting partnership. Add Amy Poehler in the mix, and things are bound to be gut-busting, so we can only hope that Baking It will be anywhere near as entertaining as Poehler and Nick Offerman are on Making It.
Currently, it is unknown when Baking It will premiere on Peacock. Until then, viewers can catch Andy Samberg in the final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is currently airing two-episodes blocks every Thursday night on NBC starting at 8:00 p.m. Moviegoers can currently hear Maya Rudolph’s voice in Netflix’s hit film The Mitchells vs. Machines and Disney+’s animated film Luca, while Samberg will pop up in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania and the Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers movie.
