The Great British Bake Off is just so quintessentially British, isn’t it?
From the village fete atmosphere, to the delicious bakes, the cosy cooking show makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
But, while we thought GBBO could do no wrong, it seems as if we were wildly mistaken.
Because Springwatch’s Michaela Strachan has launched an attack on the show for “promoting obesity”.
Speaking to The Mirror, she said: “I can’t believe a show that uses so much sugar is so popular.
“You read all the time these articles damning sugar and talking about the obesity problems, and they are piling it into these massive cakes celebrating it.
“Personally, it’s not a show I switch on.”
We guess that’s a fair enough point; after all, tuning in DOES make us want to run and get a cuppa and a slice of Victoria Sponge.
However Michaela didn’t stop there.
“[Sugar consumption is] Often [worse] in poorer communities. They have five spoonfuls of sugar in their tea. I hate to see people not respecting their bodies.
“The odd sweet is fine, the odd biscuit is fine. But you can’t have these things all the time.”
Well, it seems as if Michaela could get her wish to see GBBO pulled from our TV schedules.
According to The Sun, the BBC’s three-year deal runs out with the makers of the show following this summer’s series.
Which means that a bidding war could see the broadcaster LOSE the Great British Bake Off to another channel.
Yup, with even more budget cuts coming to the broadcaster, there is increasing pressure from the likes of Channel 4, ITV, and Sky, all of whom would love to get their mitts on GBBO.
Their interest in the baking show is unsurprising, as it’s proven to be something of a gold mine in terms of ratings; last year, it raked in a whopping 15.1 million viewers on average!
“It’s no surprise at all the broadcasters want a chance at landing Bake Off. It really would be a fantastic fit for Channel 4.
“But if you were Sky and ITV why wouldn’t you want the most-watched show on telly?” a source told the newspaper.
Even worse than the prospect of ADVERTS mixed in with our dose of Bake Off is the fact that, if another channel secures the rights to the show, it won’t return to our screens until 2018 due to a clause in the BBC’s contract.
Yes, that means that this year’s series could be the last for a few years.
Eep.
Fingers crossed the BBC manage to secure the show for a few more years, eh?
We don’t think we could go without our regular summer dose of Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood…
You may also wish to read:
Great British Bake Off: 17 surprising facts about the baking show
The Great British Bakeoff is set to return later this year.