The Great American Baking Show: Where does it go from here?

After a night without The Great American Baking Show, and the knowledge that it won’t be back at all this year, we’re wondering if ABC will bring it back.

In case you missed it — and we wouldn’t blame you if you did — ABC has completely and totally removed The Great American Baking Show from its schedule this holiday season and “ended its relationship with Johnny Iuzzini“.  That means that you’ll have to get your baking fix, albeit not holiday-themed, from Netflix or PBS for The Great British Baking Show.

But does that mean that The Great American Baking Show is completely dead, never to return to our shores in 2018? Not necessarily. ABC didn’t say that the show itself was completely cancelled, and while Iuzzini has been a judge for all three seasons the show, that does not mean that it will get rid of the show entirely.

It’s entirely possible that the show will find a new American judge to pair with Paul Hollywood. It finally seemed to be finding its footing with Ayesha Curry and Anthony Adams as the hosts, and this wouldn’t be the first time that a judge has been swapped out. Mary Berry used to judge, but this season had Hollywood, and presumably he’d be willing to come back and work with a different judge, because somehow, we trust in Hollywood’s willingness to offer more bakers tips on how to be better bakers (and also make money).

Frankly, although Curry and Adams were improvements as hosts, it almost didn’t seem to work well between Iuzzini and Hollywood to begin with. Although they do have different tastes and specialties, they fell into the same basic reality TV competition judge trope: the slightly more blunt and definitely harsher judge. As a result, they just didn’t work well together.

Looking at the ratings, according to TV by the Numbers, last week’s episode had similar, if not slightly better, viewership numbers than an episode that aired at this time (as in, this week, not last week). The ratings themselves are the same, but this year’s premiere episode had a higher number of viewers.

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It’s not really possible to say definitively whether or not the show will come back. It really depends on how much ABC is willing to search for a new judge and take a vaguely-decent if not huge ratings-grabber in The Great American Baking Show.