BBC loses Great British Bake Off

It's about more than cold hard cash though. When integrity is a key part of your brand, such as it is Mary, and to a point Mel & Sue, you have to make a decision based on the bigger picture. I don't think that concerns Paul as much as the others, so he is quite right to go where the money is. He certainly fits quite well alongside Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver.

There’s been various attempts by the BBC to ‘launch’ Hollywood with shows outside of GBBO and they have failed to catch the imagination of the audience. He’s a baker, not a chef. There’s only so much you can do with bread! I don’t wish him any ill and understand why he has stayed however there’s nothing worse than being a leftover from a previous incarnation of a how. It just leads to a slow, lingering death.

I think it would need to be a very different programme to avoid legal action from Love Productions.

However what they could do is to reuse an old format - or a baking version of an existing format. MasterBaker anyone?

I thought he moved to Channel 4?

I'm sure they can come up with something else that combines Mel & Sue's knack for puns with Mary's culinary skills.

Coming soon to BBC One: DINE HARD.

Wonder how long it'll be until Mel and Sue are linked to a rumoured revival of the Generation Game - as that is actually something I think they'd work well on together, if indeed they do anything else together in the near future. Mary will just do yet another cookery show (because the BBC don't have enough of them), and may just get it in a slot on BBC1 versus Corrie (or Bake Off) rather than BBC2.

I don't think anyone is surprised Paul followed the show to C4 and it's probably a wise move for him, and not just financially. He's never really established himself outside of Bake Off at the BBC but I suspect would have more opportunities at C4.

Well Saturday Kitchen's got a vacancy

I bet James Martin is gutted that Paul's gone to C4 too as I think he'd have been the hot favourite to replace Paul had he quit.

He is mentioned in a YouGov poll to replace Mary but can't see that happening. Delia, Nigella and Lorraine Pascoe all mentioned too, whilst much talk of Nadiya Hussain too, though not sure if contestant to judge in two years is a wise move for the programme - not that recent history suggests they know about wise moves!

It happened on Strictly...

I did think it odd they said on BBC Radio news today that Mary is "staying at the BBC", as that would suggest they have something in the works for her.



It's probably easy money for him, so can see why he's going to C4. As a baker (not really a chef), I'm not sure how more "established" he could get at the BBC? Seven series of Bake Off as a judge (64 episodes plus extra one-off specials), 20 episodes of Paul Hollywood's Pies & Puds and 6 episodes of Paul Hollywood's Bread. I'm not sure how much more he could front solo on his area of culinary expertise.

Well they said the same about Mel & Sue, even though neither of them has been doing any regular programmes for the BBC

Well it's only fair they have their turn... I think we've all been linked to a rumoured revival of the Generation Game at some point haven't we?