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The Great British Baking Show has become a fan-favorite show in the UK and beyond since it first premiered in 2010. The show’s thirteenth season, which aired in 2022, left a bad taste in viewers’ mouths — no pun intended. Even the show’s executive producer admitted that it was a weak spot.

'The Great British Baking Show' judge Sandy Toksvig
‘The Great British Baking Show’ judge Sandy Toksvig | Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images

‘The Great British Baking Show’ has become a massive success

The beloved series centered around sweet treats airs in the UK as The Great British Bake-Off, but on Netflix in the US, it’s known as The Great British Baking Show due to a copyright held by Pillsbury.

Every week, bakers from across the UK come together to bake desserts adhering to a theme. Over the years, the show has featured some delectable dishes, as well as some less-than-appetizing options.

A ‘Great British Baking Show’ producer said season 13 was ‘not [their] strongest’

Season 13 of The Great British Baking Show, which aired in 2022, wasn’t as strong of an outing as fans have become used to. Many found the challenges overly complicated and the judging of contestants’ work to be harsh. There was also a backlash over a Mexican-themed episode for being culturally insensitive, among the missteps being hosts Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding wearing sombreros.

The Great British Baking Show Executive Producer Richard McKerrow stopped by The Media Podcast in February 2023 to explain his thoughts on the last season, and admitted that they could’ve done better.

“I’d be the first to hold up our hands and say that I feel that the last series was not our strongest,” McKerrow said, according to Deadline. “You’ve got to take a look at it and go, ‘S***, [are] the challenges too complicated?’”

When it comes to the show’s upcoming fourteenth season, the team behind the show is making sure there are no faux pas this time around. “We’re looking very, very, very hard at making sure that it’s as good a series as it can be,” McKerrow said.

He went on to explain that the team filmed two seasons under stressful conditions during the pandemic. “We had two series, which we had to film during COVID,” he said. “The team here just went to enormous efforts and enormous sacrifice to get that filming done in a bubble.”

As for the departure of host Matt Lucas, McKerrow hopes to have a replacement before the season stars filming in April 2023. “It’s safe to say we are getting there. And I think well, given that we have to start filming in April, I would hope that we will have some news for you within the next few weeks,” he stated.

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The show will film its 14th season in April 2023

Ultimately, McKerrow declared that the show was taking fans’ reactions into account and working to do better.. “You have to take very, very, very good care of it. So when people are criticizing either the challenges have become too complicated or whatever, you know, that’s something we take seriously,” he said.

“The most important thing is to find someone who realizes that the real heart of Bake Off is: love the bakers, love the baking. Someone who’s curious and someone who cares and understands.”

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