Almost eight million people tuned in for the long-awaited return of the Great British Bake Off last night — up a million on last year’s launch.
Overnight ratings showed that the 90-minute episode, which was delayed by 15 minutes for Boris Johnson’s national address, drew an average audience of 6.9 million, and peaked at 7.9 million.
This was up from the overnight average of 5.7 million viewers for the start of season 10 last year. In 2018, the first year the show was on Channel 4, 6.1 million tuned in. The PM’s address was watched by 10.7million.
Last night Matt Lucas made his presenting debut, having taken over from Sandi Toksvig. He joined Noel Fielding, now in his third season as host. Production of the series was initially delayed by the pandemic, and the 12 contestants, presenters and crew eventually formed a “bubble” for seven weeks so filming could start.
In the first minutes of the show, Lucas impersonated the Prime Minister in a spoof coronavirus press conference, with the slogan “Stay Alert, Protect Cake, Save Loaves”.
The was high drama when Sura accidentally knocked Dave’s pineapple upside-down cakes off his slate before judging of the technical challenge. Loriea, a diagnostic radiographer from Durham, became the first baker to be eliminated.
Peter, 20, an accounting and finance student from Edinburgh, was named star baker after crafting three successful bakes.
Filming took place in Down Hall Hotel near Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, for the first time.
With reporting by Press Association
