I’m a home baker who loves watching The Great British Baking Show. I decided to embark on my own Great British Baking Challenge by baking through the Bake Off! I hope you will join me, or at least read along, as I attempt every challenge the contestants on the show are given. On your mark, get set…BAKE!
Well, it’s finally happened. For the first time ever, the first two seasons of “The Great British Baking Show” are available on a U.S. streaming service, and it’s free! These two seasons originally aired in the U.K. in 2010 and 2011 but weren’t included in the seasons that were brought to the U.S. by PBS and Netflix. Now, The Roku Channel has licensed the rights to seasons 1 through 7, filling in the gap created when Netflix removed “The Great British Baking Show: The Beginnings” (season 3) and Collections 1-4 (seasons 4-7) from its menu last year. The Roku Channel app is free to download in the U.S.
(For more on the differences in how the seasons were numbered between the U.S. and U.K., and the name change that occurred when “The Great British Bake Off” crossed the pond, see my explanation and handy graph here .
In addition to the first seven seasons of “The Great British Baking Show,” Roku also acquired the rights to 10 seasons of “Celebrity Baking Show”; three seasons of “Baking Show: An Extra Slice” (a half-hour comedic recap of each episode of “Bake Off” featuring an interview with the baker who left the tent that week); as well as the spin-offs “Paul Hollywood: A Baker’s Life,” “Paul Hollywood’s Bread” and “Mary Berry Cooks.” Not only that, Roku offers a Great British Baking Show LIVE channel, which provides back-to-back episodes streaming endlessly — just tune in whenever you need a Bake-Off fix!
Roku has promised that it will also air the next season of “The Great American Baking Show,” which is produced by the same company — Love Productions — and filmed in the same tent as “The Great British Baking Show.” A launch date hasn’t been announced yet, but Roku said the new season will be available sometime in early 2023. Perhaps as a teaser, the channel premiered “The Great American Baking Show: Celebrity Holiday” in December. Both “Celebrity Holiday” and the regular season of the American version will reprise Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith as judges.
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