For many fans of The Great British Bake Off (also called the Great British Baking Show ) watching the competition is an exercise in fantasy, but judge Paul Hollywood explains that this season, they will be making the challenges on the show easier and more relatable.
The Daily Mail reported that Hollywood admits that the challenges in the series had gotten too difficult, and in the new season, they will be easier.
“It’s been interesting to come up with some unusual things this year – the challenges I think have been scaled back a little bit. I thought sometimes we’ve been running away with some of the challenges being too difficult.”
He explains that when the show started, the challenges included things that fans could make at home, and they want to return to that vibe. Hollywood believes that when the challenges got too hard for the home baker, they were turned off and people lost interest.
Hollywood’s fellow judge, Prue Leith, said that in the last year, some of the challenges would have been difficult for professional bakers, saying that there were competitions on the show that puzzled some of the contestants, who had never heard of some of the confections they were baking.
There ain’t no party like a Mad Hatter’s tea party ? #GBBO returns Tuesday 27th of August at 8pm with @noelfielding11 @sanditoksvig @PaulHollywood @PrueLeith pic.twitter.com/5vuQ4lNOHW
— Channel 4 (@Channel4) August 14, 2019
Leith says that the show has to strike a balance between being easy and allowing someone to breeze through and getting to the point where all of the contestants find themselves failing.
“And it’s quite worrying because you don’t really want somebody to just gallop ahead,” she said. “[But] they all at some point do really badly, so there’s a sort of seesaw and it’s really confusing.”
Last year’s champion, Rahul Mandal, was very accomplished but had to overcome a number of disasters during the competition. Despite his cool demeanor and steely gaze, Paul Hollywood explained that he does feel bad when the contestants have a disaster during the competition.
“I feel upset because I know they’re capable of much more and in that particular week they’ve messed up and you see them mess up and that’s it they’re gone.”
Hollywood added that there are no second chances in the baking competition, and the best contestants are those who don’t have a weak category, whether it be pastry, pies or breads.
Leith jokeed that she has had to go on a perpetual diet because she is constantly tempted by all of the delicious items that she has to taste during the competition.
