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| 'Great British Bake Off' created by Love Productions, says 'Farewell!' to the BBC & says 'Home Sweet Home' to Channel 4! |
BBC has lost the contract to broadcast The Great British Bake Off. The popular cooking show will now be shown on Channel 4 were they've signed a three-year deal with Love Productions. The first programme, a version of Celebrity Bake Off, will come in 2017.
Love
Productions said negotiations with the BBC had been taking place for a
year, with a last-ditch meeting on Monday. They signed a deal with
Channel 4 the same evening. The BBC earlier said it 'hoped' Love
Productions would change their mind and that Bake Off was a
"quintessentially BBC programme".
Channel 4 is understood to have offered more money for the brand following the breakdown in negotiations with the BBC.
Jay Hunt, Channel 4's chief creative officer said:
'Channel 4 is very proud to be the new home for The Great British Bake Off. I'm delighted we have been able to partner with the hugely talented team at Love Productions to keep this much loved show on free-to-air television'.
Richard McKerrow, Love Productions creative director said:
'We believe we've found the perfect new home for Bake Off. It's a public service, free-to-air broadcaster for whom Love Productions have produced high-quality and highly successful programmes for more than a decade. It's tremendously exciting to have found a broadcaster who we know will protect and nurture The Great British Bake Off for many years to come'.
'Enormous hit'
The opening show of the current series, the seventh, was watched by an average of 10.4 million viewers. Bake
Off was 2015's most-watched programme, with 15.1 million viewers for
the final, according to consolidated figures which include catch-up
viewing. It got an average audience of 13.4m people watching on the night it was broadcast.
The
show, currently airing on BBC One on Wednesday evenings, is hosted by
Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, with Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry as the
judges. It sees amateur bakers compete in a series of challenges.
In a previous statement, Love Productions thanked the BBC 'for the role it played in making this show such an enormous hit" and
"the faith they showed in us over the years to develop it'.
The
BBC said:
"Working with Love Productions, we have grown and nurtured the programme over seven series and created the huge hit it is today. We made a very strong offer to keep the show but we are a considerable distance apart on the money. The BBC's resources are not infinite'.
'Really sad to hear that the BBC has lost rights to Bake Off. Its success is down to format and aesthetic - commercialising will ruin that'.
The Great British Bake Off has won a total of nine Bafta awards, with four of them being won through a public vote. Earlier
this year it won at the National Television Awards in the category for
Challenge Show, beating Bear Grylls: Mission Survive, Masterchef and The
Apprentice.
It was announced in July
that the show will get two Christmas specials later this year, with
four bakers from previous series doing three seasonal challenges,
replacing the Bake Off Masterclass programmes.
The show began on BBC Two in 2010 before moving to BBC One in 2014. Bake Off also has a junior version, shown on CBBC. Last
year's Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain is lined up as one of the judges
for the next children's series alongside chef and food writer Allegra
McEvedy.