'The Great British Baking Show: Holidays' Are Happening on Netflix
Mark, Maxy, Maggie and Jürgen return in 'The Great British Baking Show: Holidays' Season 7
Channel 4/Mark Bourdillon/Love Productions
The holidays are a time when TV networks know viewers will tune in; it's not like people want to watch a Christmas Tree lighting in mid-January! However, that problem is exactly what Netflix has regarding The Great British Baking Show. The 60-hour wait from Tuesday at 8 p.m. BT to Friday at 3 a.m. ET works fine for the regular season. However, that delay puts the yearly Christmas Special on December 29 and the New Year's installment on January 4, when the service is already done with festive programming. So Netflix deals with it the old-fashioned way, waiting 11 months to air last year's episodes during the actual holiday period.
In fairness to Netflix, unless there's been host turnover, there's no way to tell one year's holiday edition from the next. The Christmas one always brings back former contestants, meaning the episodes actually benefit from waiting. (The contestants have been away from American viewers longer.) The New Year's editions drift back and forth between former contestants and U.K. celebrity casts from hit shows, half of which haven't even crossed the pond to American televisions yet. (The other half never will.) Either way, whether it's 2022, 2023, or 2024, the specials still work regardless as long as they premiere in December.
However, this does mean we Americans get to see episodes that have been pretty well hyped ahead of time. In this case, it's Christmas 2023, which brought back Sophie from Season 8 (Netflix's current first season, Collection 5), Dan from Season 9, Amelia from Season 10, Linda from Season 11, George from Season 12, and Carole from Season 13.
George, Sophie, Dan, Amelia, Linda and Carole return for 'The Great British Baking Show: Holidays' Season 7
Channel 4 / Mark Bourdillon / Love Productions
As for the GBBO: Holidays edition's second episode, the New Year special from January 1, 2024, was in a "previous contestants year" instead of a celebrity one, but they brought back one of the biggest fan favorites of them all: Season 12's superstar Jürgen, who was famously tossed from the tent by Paul Hollywood for having the nerve to dismiss his attempts at Germansplaining Jürgen's cuisine to him. He'll be up against fellow Season 12 alum Maggie, Mark from Season 11, and Maxy from Season 13.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 has already announced the contestants for Christmas 2024 and New Year's 2025, so here's a quick preview of what Netflix will stream next December. For 2024, the Christmas Special will have the U.K. celebrities most Americans won't know: Dean Gaffney and Natalie Cassidy from EastEnders, Shobna Gulati and Chris Bisson from Coronation Street, and Hollyoaks star Sheree Murphy.
The New Year's 2025 Edition will have four former contestants, and for once, the series will pull from the BBC years with Lea Harris from Season 1 back in 2010, the show's inaugural season that never aired in the States but used to be available streaming on Roku. Lea will be joined by James from Season 3 (PBS Season 5, which used to be on Netflix as The Great British Baking Show: The Beginnings), Norman from Season 5 (PBS Season 1), and Kevin Flynn from Season 13.
But first, we have last year's episodes to enjoy, so fetch your aprons and flip on the telly. On your marks, Get set, Bake!
The Great British Baking Show: Holidays Season 7 will arrive on Netflix with last year's festive specials on Monday, December 9, 2024.
