Netflix & 'The Great British Baking Show' Remind Us 'Holidays' Are Fungible

It's only been a week since the weirdest ending to a season of The Great British Baking Show went down, and now it's time for The Great British Baking Show: Holidays edition of the program, the other weirdest edition of the program, at least where Americans are concerned. For the U.K. public, the "Holiday" editions are completely normal occurrences, episodes that air on Channel 4 on Christmas Day and New Year's Day every year, one of which features celebrities, the other of which brings back favorite contestants from years past. But due to Netflix's deal that doesn't allow them to stream day and date but four days later, that doesn't happen here. Instead, the U.S. gets them 11 months and three weeks later.

Some years, that's not actually all that odd, at least not when the judges and hosts carry over from year to year. It also works well when the celebrities coming to the tent to compete are stars from Channel 4 shows that were hits on both sides of the pond due to Netflix, like Derry Girls. However, the 2022/2023 Christmas/New Year's editions were sadly not those kinds of episodes. Host Matt Lucas, who was deeply unpopular with stateside viewers, had already announced he was leaving the program just before the Christmas episode aired.

Moreover, "The Great Christmas Bake Off" episode was cast by Channel 4 to promote Channel 4, which is great for Channel 4. For Americans, it means having four old white British actors they'd never heard of who'd starred in shows they'd never seen.