The Great British Bake Off is a British television baking competition that aired on BBC from 2010 to 2013, and was then revived in 2017 and continues today. It even spawned The Great American Baking Show, which first aired in 2013 on ABC and continues today on The Roku Channel. There’s something inescapably domestic about a baking show, even one that mysteriously films in a tent outdoors. The contestants are amateur bakers, often referred to as “home bakers.” They call on skills they honed cooking for and with their families. The bakers involved feel like family, and judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood fill the role of demanding but supportive parents. Then there were comedians Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, who not only acted as hosts of the show, but took their place in the “family” as daffy aunts. What many people don’t know about the dynamic duo is that when contestants cried out of frustration or disappointment, Mel and Sue would stand near them and use inappropriate language so the embarrassing footage was tainted and couldn’t be used on-air. It’s one of the endearing things about having a reality show that feels more like family than entertainment. For six years Mel and Sue spread their mother-hen wings over their brood of bakers, and in the process helped create a model for reality TV that protects, not exploits, people’s mental health and emotional integrity.
