Could the BBC make their own Bake Off replacement?

Ever since the news that The Great British Bake Off would be moving from BBC One to Channel Four, there’s been one question raised – could the BBC make their own, very similar, replacement? The question has only been strengthened with the news that Sue Perkins, Mel Geidroyc, and Mary Berry won’t be returning to the show; why not bring the three of them together once more, for The Great British Cake Off, perhaps?

What Channel 4 bought was the broadcasting rights for the concept – essentially, they paid £75 million to be allowed to show people baking in a tent. It’s not exactly the most innovative and unique concept, though; television is proliferated with talent shows and competitions, linked to a variety of different idiosyncratic skills, with a lot of crossover between them. Masterchef, The Great British Menu, and so on and so forth have all been able to meaningfully co-exist, so presumably another baking show could be thrown into the mix.

I’ve written a new article for Yahoo, with a bit of analysis about whether or not the BBC could make their own Bake Off replacement, looking at various precedents, the relationship between the BBC and Love Production, and a little bit of wild speculation too.

(I wrote this pretty much entirely because of the frankly bizarre about of hate comments my original Bake Off piece garnered.)

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