The Problem with 'The Great British Baking Show' is Paul Hollywood

The most recent season of The Great British Baking Show was not the series's best effort: From ridiculous challenges that seemed more focused on shaming the contestants than celebrating their bakes to awkward host interactions and truly incomprehensible judging decisions, the tent has been a mess this year, and there is certainly lots to complain about. But the show's never going to get back to its best form until it deals with the elephant in the room: Judge Paul Hollywood.

Trust me when I say that I know I'm going to get hate mail for even typing that sentence. I understand that many fans genuinely love Paul for himself, and yet there are still more who cling to his presence as the last remnant of the original BBC version of the Baking Show. And on a nostalgia level, that's easy to understand. However, this is a different version of the show now, and not always for the better.

Truth be told, the entire judging slate should probably be tossed in the bin and rebuilt from scratch. As much as I love Matt Lucas in other projects, he's got no business being on this program and contributes virtually nothing. (Remember his physically painful Boris Johnson impersonation? Or when they made him wear a papier-mache mango on his head? Please make it stop.) His painful comedy schtick with co-host Noel Fielding is simply not funny at all. As a result of Lucas's addition to the cast, the series now has a bizarre, male-heavy energy that it struggles to harness in a creatively satisfying way.