10 Fun Facts About the Great British Baking Show

Over the years, The Great British Baking Show has caught the world in its oven mitts.

You may have found yourself shouting at the TV about soggy bottoms or drooling over beautiful tiered cakes.

If your stomach growled over the latest season’s epic showstoppers, then you should dig into these facts about everyone’s favorite baking show.

1. The Great British Baking Show rivals the Olympics in UK viewer count.

The show is so popular that in 2016, during the finale for season 7, it beat the record for the number of viewers tuned in, at 15.9 million in the UK alone.

That’s more viewers than the 2012 London Olympics got!

Later, during season 11, it broke the UK’s Channel 4 record for most viewers of a non-film broadcast.

Around 11 million people tuned in for the first episode, breaking a record that had been held since 1985!

2. Fans called for the arrest of a contestant after the Bingate incident.

In 2014, Iain Watters tried to make Baked Alaska as his showstopper dessert. While the Ice Cream was chilling in the freezer, contestant Diana Beard removed it, allowing it to melt.

Watters didn’t notice until too late and threw the melted ice cream in the bin. When asked to present, he showed the judges the bin filled with his creation, and they booted him from the show.

Fans of the show were outraged and suggested Beard be disqualified, and some even called for her arrest!

3. Contestants have to submit their recipes before the season starts filming.

Long before the shooting begins, contestants must prepare ten signature and ten showstopper dishes.

If they make it all the way to the finale, they will bake these dishes over the entire season.

The food producer and the home economics team then study the dishes to ensure that all of the ingredients are ready before they shoot each episode.

4. It’s only called the Great British Baking Show in the US and Canada.

The show is named differently in the US and Canada due to a trademark owned by the Pillsbury company.

The company has had its own competition, the Pillsbury Bake Off, which has been running since 1949.

Elsewhere in the world, The Great British Baking Show is called the Great British Bake Off.

5. Contestants in season 4 swapped custards.

The infamous custard swap happened in episode 3 when contestants were asked to make trifles for their signature dishes.

Deborah shocked viewers when she stole Howard’s creme anglaise (a French pouring custard) from the fridge and used it in her trifle.

The judges noticed and forced Howard to use Deborah’s custard.

Some fans of the show were upset about this and took to X (Formerly Twitter), dubbing the incident custardgate.

6. Over 12,000 people apply to compete in the baking show every year.

Every year, would-be contestants must undergo a rigorous application process.

The process includes several elimination rounds and a filmed technical round that decides the final 12 who will be on the show.

The application form is also pretty difficult to navigate, with contestants needing to fill in many pages of information to prove their ability and show that they want to make it onto the show.

7. The technical rounds really are a secret.

Although the signature and showstopper rounds are planned, the technical rounds are revealed to contestants only after filming starts.

The rounds are designed to test the contestants’ skills in the kitchen. The contestants are given vague instructions to follow, and they have to beat the clock!

8. The national week has ended for good, and we’re not mad about it.

Up until season 13, viewers had to endure a themed national week during which the bakers had to cook food from a specific nation.

It was always a bit off with its cultural appropriation, but Season 13 really took the cake.

Viewers were horrified at the judges’ insensitive appropriation of sombreros and maracas and their decision to speak in a Mexican accent.

The show faced so much backlash the entire concept was finally canned.

9. Paul Hollywood is notoriously hard to impress during bread week.

Paul claims to be the bread expert on the show, and he should! His first job was in his father’s bakery, and by his 20s, he was managing his own shop.

Fans have noticed that if you receive the “Hollywood Handshake” after baking bread, you have perfected a bread bake.

Paul Jagger managed to do this in season three when he baked a lion out of bread.

He used three different types of bread to create the tribute to Cecil the Lion, a lion in Zimbabwe that was part of a long-term study.

10. The only judge who has been there from the start is Paul Hollywood.

After season three, the show moved from the BBC to Channel 4 after some financial disputes.

Most of the original judges and presenters, loyal to the BBC, quit their positions while Hollywood stayed on.

He is the highest-earning judge on the show, earning around $780,000 per year (2024), far above his co-stars, Prue Leith, Alison Hammond, and Noel Feilding.