Season 16 of 'The Great British Baking Show' Confirmed for 2025
Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding are the hosts for The Great British Baking Show Season 15
Love Productions/Channel 4/Mark Bourdillon
When The Great British Baking Show moved house from BBC One to Channel 4 after its seventh season (labeled Season 4 by PBS), the contract was for a guaranteed three seasons. This was in keeping with the same structure the show had done with the BBC. After the show's successful first season, it was renewed for three years on BBC 2; after Season 4, it was for three years on BBC One. When renewal time came in 2021, Channel 4 re-upped for another three seasons, extending the series through the current Season 15. Therefore, it's not a surprise that Channel 4 has commissioned the show for Season 16.
However, it is surprising that there has been no official grand announcement about it; moreover, the renewal is as yet only for Season 16. In fact, the confirmation of Season 16 was only mentioned at the end of a press release on the U.K. premiere day of Season 15. The real reason we know for sure it's happening is because the auditions submissions page is taking applications for "2025."
Should fans be concerned this might be the tent's slow fold? Probably not; Deadline reported in March 2024 that Channel 4, desperate to keep the series, had staved off any chance of the show moving to Netflix wholesale. However, a few factors seem to have pushed negotiations for far longer than initially expected (that March article assumed a three-season announcement was imminent), starting with The Great British Baking Show's original broadcaster, the BBC.
Love Productions probably never meant to take The Great British Baking Show to another network when it put a price tag on the series that rivaled the entire BBC 4 operating budget. Consider its position: The BBC held the contract for the location, the judges and hosts, and the global distribution rights to the franchise everywhere but the U.S. and Canada. Hence why, when the show returned, the tent was pitched in a new spot, only Paul Hollywood remained, and Love Productions was letting Netflix pretend in America that the series was an "original" of their own for a large fee.
However, those global distribution rights remain under the BBC's auspices. More importantly, negotiations will begin again in 2028, and the BBC could find a way to get the program back, especially with a Labur government keen to see it stacked with hit shows. Channel 4 almost certainly wants to head that off, and renewing now for three years through 2027 will not help if the show suddenly moves in 2028.
Channel 4 is also leaning more heavily on The Great British Baking Show (and airing the Australian and Canadian versions) to keep itself afloat in the streaming wars. Both Channel 4 and 5 were always smaller also-rans in comparison to the BBC and ITV, but the current climate has made those divides larger than ever. Channel 4 is not about to be sold anymore, but it lost out on multiple deals during that period of uncertainty, including having How to Get To Heaven From Belfast move to guarantee it got made.
One idea being bounced around is an All-Stars season or special edition. The Great British Baking Show has always had celebrity-packed specials for its charity programming, like the Stand Up to Cancer specials. GBBO also brings back fan favorites to compete from previous seasons for Christmas and New Year’s. But it’s never done a proper, ten-episode “All Stars” like most cooking competitions do, partly because it went against the show’s original spirit: making it to the tent automatically made you a star.
Of course, that original spirit hasn’t been part of the show since the “history of baking” segments disappeared after Season 7, and with Channel 4 looking to give Love Productions’ hit more airtime, several of the big bosses seem interested. The idea was initially floated in 2020 when the series was trying to figure out how to do a pandemic-safe season; bringing back ten contestants everyone already knows was one idea.
It didn’t happen then, but it seems this is part of negotiations now. As Baking Show’s longtime creative director, Kieran Smith, told Vulture, “People would love to see how their favorite bakers from the past would fare. There’s something fun about crowning the ultimate champion at this point. Past bakers always love coming back to the tent.” We'll be watching to see whether Channel 4 will announce an All-Stars season, more GBBO past Season 16, or both.
The Great British Baking Show Season 15 heads into the Quarterfinals on Tuesday, November 12, in the U.K. and Friday, November 15, 2024. The series will continue with new episodes of Tuesday/Friday in the U.K./U.S. through the end of November.
