I'm hoping for Val or Candice to go, and one of the guys to get star baker

Alan Carr is a C4 favourite, as is Anna Richardson ..........

It's not adverts that change a programme, it's being produced for a channel funded by them.

CH4 Bake-Off will be different because it has to appeal to the viewers that advertisers wish to sell things too.

I really have no idea why CH4 Creative Head Jay Hunt bought the show, she would have to change it anyway to suit her advertisers demands.

Such a payment only helps Love Productions, it does not help CH4.
It all seems dubious to me.

Alan Carr

But all those shows originated on channels with adverts, viewers didn't watch them for 6 years without adverts and then have them moved to a channel with adverts leading to them cutting out around 15 minutes of the content they are used to seeing.


That might make things awkward at home with Sue

Anyone want to wager on how all of this massive, wall-to-wall, publicity will affect the show tonight? Ratings had been dropping off slightly week by week, so far this series. I think it'll be back at near episode 1 level, probably over 10 million for overnights, despite there being absolutely no chance that the programme itself will reflect the current situation. I am also very much looking forward to An Extra Slice - that one should have ratings through the roof this week!

Yes, ratings will be huge with peeps demonstrating a quiet solidarity by watching live, enjoying what will soon be no more.

Surely we watch GBBO for the whole package? That includes Mel, Sue, Paul and Mary. The presenters and judges are what makes a programme like this and when you start messing with those the programme starts to founder. Does anybody really watch it solely because it's a show about baking?

And yes programmes can be successful with advertising but all those shows you list began with and continued to have advertising throughout their runs. GBBO hasn't and it really does put me off. There will be aroun 12-15 minutes less of the programme and that will affect it badly as far as I'm concerned, particularly as others have said we will have recaps and coming next every time an ad break happens.

For me though, what has tainted the programme most is the greed of Love Productions. It feels somewhat tawdry and has damaged what I felt to be the innocence of the show. It won't be the same show now I know it's just as mercenary as everything else.

BIB - not really, otherwise Creme de la Creme would have held much more interest to me than it actually did. I suspect the contributions of the presenters was fatally underestimated, and Love thought they were entirely replaceable - and C4 believed them. Now, they're desperately trying to secure Paul and Mary by throwing vast sums of money at them, in the hope one of them will stay to justify the expense of the show.

My biggest concern is what happens if all 4 turn down the offers. We have a situation where the biggest, most popular show on TV has been destroyed in the space of a few days by the hasty actions of the production company, who valued getting a quick deal at the right price, rather than the right deal at any price. No more Mel, Sue, Mary or Paul means there is no interest left for me in a baking show in a tent. That's not to say that, one day, they might stumble upon a new combination of presenters and judges that fit the show and deliver a strong programme, but that kind of thing is like lightening in a bottle - they let out the stopper on Monday, and they won't get it back without vast amounts of good luck. Money won't help!

If - - and when all four say No, hopefully it will force Love Productions and C4 the complete error of there ways and rethink this terrible deal.

The current " deal" with C4 is dead, dead as a dead parrot, it has ceased to be , and pushing up the daisies.


Love need to go back to the BBC, say sorry and take there good offer.

What kind of cooling off periods are there for TV deals? if one exists, we're surely within the boundaries of it right now. It's a massive embarrassment to Love and C4, and puts Love in a massively weaker position going forward with the BBC, but it's definitely recoverable - and given this series is filmed and done, and next year's won't start for many months, it's a good opportunity to lick a few wounds and then get back to making the biggest show on TV. I guess it just has to be fingers crossed - otherwise the show as we know it is dead (as a parrot!).

Almost no show on TV is actually watched because of the format.

Every hit show there has ever been is about the people in front of the camera and, if it's a fiction show, the writers as well.


But the modern TV execs are completely blind to this, and especially CH4s Jay Hunt who seems to have an unprecedented emotional lack (and a very large self regard)

Ah, I honestly had not thought about that!

For me the show is a Gesamtkunstwerk, there are many aspects that come together. To highlight the biggest ones, 50% baking and the actual competition, challenges. The fact that it is straight with no intrigues is a huge part of the attraction. 25% is that I can always find my favourites and support them even if I have no influence on the result, 25% is the atmosphere of the programme, it's a nice thing to watch, this includes double entendres There's drama, but the right kind, it's not people being mean to each other. It's a working formula that they will try to improve, because they will want to justify spending so much money on it.

Of course it's not just about baking! If it was it would just be about the mechanics and technicality of baking. The heart of the programme, as well as baking, is the interaction between the contestants and the judges/presenters. Did you think Top Gear was just a programme about cars?

and this is precisely why it failed so badly with Evans presenting it. They thought they could just replace the presenters and it would be fine. It might have stood more of a chance if they had used a different studio set, different formats but they didn't.

Bake Off is a 'whole' experience, it works because of the bakers, the challenges, the filming, the presenters.

Bake Off works by purest luck. It was a wacky concept that no one else would have bothered with.

The BBC (and therefore the public) took the risk, not Love Productions

And yet it's Love productions who gain, the public lose.

It's annoying and I'd prefer it to stay with the BBC but I'll still watch the show on C4. I see it as the best of a bad bunch; it could have been worse and gone to ITV or Sky.

It's a shame that Mel & Sue have ruled themselves out of moving with the show as I really enjoy their interaction with the bakers. If I'm honest I won't be upset if Mary turns C4 down as she's my least favourite of the 4. Going against the grain on here but I love Paul so would be glad if he was still involved going forward.

Not necessarily awkward for Anna and Sue......best of both worlds in fact.........they get the moral high ground and the dough

Oh I wasn't saying I didn't like them - I do - I was just posing the possibility...

In any case, we now know that clearly the decision to bail is theirs and not Ch.4's.

I was just about to say that! Win-win.

I've seen the American version of the show. Never watched more than a couple of eps. Because even though it still had the baking it just wasn't the same show when you didn't have the same team.

I still feel very sad with all the events this week ... Hopefully batter week will cheer me up !

Evening All. Thought I'd get that in while I'm headed to the garden with a glass of pre GBBO wine.

Evening everyone