‘Great British Bake Off’ Dropping Those Awkward Cultural Weeks

Hallelujah! The Great British Bake Off won’t make us white-knuckle it through any more awkward cultural weeks. When the series returns in the fall, host Noel Fielding will be joined by his new co-host, Alison Hammond, and judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith will still be in each episode, judging home bakers’ skill tests and showstoppers.

But perhaps the best news about the new season is that it will see The Great British Bake Off return to its roots and abandon its offensive, culturally appropriative theme weeks, during which the bakers embarrass themselves as they’re forced to cook (not bake) food they’ve hardly ever seen, let alone eaten or recreated. Last season’s “Mexican week” was met with widespread backlash from viewers not just for the uncomfortable appropriation, but for the fact that these bakers are on the show to bake, not cook.

In an interview with The Guardian, executive producer Kieran Smith said, “I hold my hands up to the cooking complaint and the theme weeks. We didn’t want to offend anyone but the world has changed and the joke fell flat. We’re not doing any national themes this year.”

This response isn’t great, but it at least acknowledges how poorly The Great British Bake Off executed on what was already a bad idea. We can all breathe a sigh of relief going forward, because Smith says the show will be moving back to the formula that made the world fall in love with it in the first place.

“We’re going very traditional,” Smith told The Guardian. “We’re doing all the regular weeks: Cakes, Biscuits, Bread, Patisserie, Chocolate, plus Party Cakes is a new theme. No spoilers, but it features challenges I think viewers will love.”

Hollywood added, “We chose this year’s challenges very carefully to be approachable. In a way, we’ve returned to the philosophy of the first three series. There are some beautiful classic ones and they’ve been a big success.”

The Great British Bake Off premiers on the U.K.’s Channel 4 later this month. A U.S. release date has not been announced.

(featured image: BBC)