'The Great British Baking Show' Returns to PBS This Summer

Good news, America – it’s time to start baking again! Another season of the highly popular cooking competition The Great British Baking Show will be airing on PBS stations nationwide this summer, beginning July 1.

PBS has aired two previous seasons of The Great British Baking Show, and will broadcast Britain’s Season 6 this summer, and call it Season 3. (The previously aired US seasons were actually Seasons 4 and 5 in British time. Confusing? A little bit. But let’s go with it.) PBS is also planning to air additional seasons of the show over the next two years, with more information on that to be announced later.

The Great British Baking Show features 12 contestants all jockeying to win the tite of Britain’s Master Baker, as judged by leading cookbook author Mary Berry and professional baker Paul Hollywood. The competitors' skills are tested on a different challenge every week – from cakes to breads to pastries of all kinds. The competitors are then eliminated based on their performances in the various challenges until only one remains.  Unlike many similarly themed American reality shows, which focus on frequently vitriolic drama, Baking Show relies on its earnestness and charm to hook viewers. And, judging from its rather immense success, this is a formula that really works.

Known as The Great British Bake Off on the other side of the pond, the BBC series is a phenomenal hit in the UK, and the most recent season finale was the nation’s most popular show of 2015 when it aired last October. It has aired six seasons thus far in England, and spawned several spinoffs, including companion series An Extra Slice and Bake Off: Crème de la Crème, in which teams of professional pastry chefs compete against one another.

Watch the new PBS promo for show's return: