Roku Channel Bringing Back ‘Great American Baking Show’ in 2023; Ellie Kemper, Zach Cherry to Host
The Roku Channel is mixing up something sweet for fans of the “Great British Baking Show”. The streamer announced that it was bringing back the American spinoff of the wildly popular reality show called “The Great American Baking Show.”
The new edition of “The Great American Baking Show” will feature judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, the regular judges on the show’s British counterpart. Noel Fielding fans will be devastated to learn that he will not be bringing his iconic sweaters and irreverent humor to the host role, however. Instead, Ellie Kemper (“Unbreakable Kimmy Shmidt,” “The Office”) and Zach Cherry (“Severance”) will take over the hosting duties for the rebooted show.
“We could not ask for a more perfect duo than Ellie and Zach to co-host ‘The Great American Baking Show’,” Roku’s Head of Alternative Originals Brian Tannenbaum said. “Our adaptation of the iconic series will continue to dish out the enduring warmth and humor that fans of the ‘Baking Show’ universe love, with a twist that we know Ellie and Zach will deliver.”
The first season of “The Great American Baking Show” on the Roku Channel will be six episodes long, and each episode will be an hour in length. Filming is underway and the series will premiere in 2023. Like everything offered on the Roku Channel, the show will be free and ad-supported.
“The Great American Baking Show” was first launched in 2015, and ran for five seasons. Most of those seasons are currently unavailable to stream, but you can still catch two seasons’ worth of “The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition” on Hulu. There are only seven episodes total, but it’s something to tide fans over until the release of new episodes on the Roku Channel next year.
The Great British Bake Off
This British television baking competition selects from amongst its competitors the best amateur baker. The series is credited with reinvigorating interest in baking throughout the UK, and many of its participants, including winners, have gone on to start a career based on baking.
Fans can also do a re-watch of the classic “Great British Baking Show” on Netflix, but in a limited fashion. The streamer currently offers Collections 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 to subscribers, which correspond to Series 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 in the UK. Older seasons of the show were previously available on PBS, but they left that platform on Dec. 31.
Currently, there is no word on when or where those seasons will be made available again. Netflix also offers eight episodes of “The Great British Baking Show: Holidays” for fans who want to get into the holiday spirit.
Roku Channel
The Roku Channel is a free live TV streaming service that provides 350+ live linear streaming channels and more than 80,000 free movies and TV shows. The library contains entertainment from several different decades, including some major hits.