With Sue Perkins, Mel Giedroyc and Mary Berry all leaving the Great British Bake Off after BBC announced the show would be moving channels, Channel 4 no doubt had to fork out a lot of cash to keep Paul Hollywood as a host.
And fork out a lot of cash, they did.
The BBC baking show was bought by Channel 4 earlier this month when they outbid the BBC’s reported offer of £15 million per year to keep the programme.
The Sky-owned production company Love Productions was reported to have refused to entertain any offers under £25m a year, leading to the show’s move to Channel 4, Indy100 reports.
Because no other hosts have been chosen, Channel 4 has effectively paid £25 million for the world’s most expensive marquee and one judge, Paul Hollywood.
Confirming his decision to stay with the show, Hollywood said in a statement:
I am delighted that I will be continuing as a judge when Bake Off moves to Channel 4. I want to thank the BBC and Mel and Sue for making my time in the tent great fun and really rewarding.
He also forgot to mention Mary Berry. Which is a little awkward.
And people on Twitter have been quick to point out that that Channel 4 may have made a large error in failing to keep three quarters of the show’s talent:
Will people still watch GBBO? Probably.
Will it be as good as the BBC original? Given what has happened to shows like Top Gear after switching hosts, probably not.
