New Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith risks wrath of Channel Four by telling viewers to ‘record the show and fast forward past the adverts’
NEW Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has risked the wrath of Channel Four by urging viewers to record the show and skip the adverts.
The former BBC1 hit will be packed more tightly with ads than any show in Channel 4’s history.
The show will have four breaks lasting nearly 17 minutes when it airs next Tuesday.
It means viewers will enjoy just 58 minutes and 18 seconds of baking and banter during the show’s 75 minutes on air.
But Leith has dashed Channel 4's hopes of racking up a record number of viewers to tune in at 8pm, the reports.
She said: "I want to comfort some people who might think, ‘Oh, I don’t want to go to Channel 4 because I don’t want to have the ads’.
"You don’t have to watch it in real time, do you?”
It came after the channel's chief executive Jay Hunt said: "We need to be really careful that audiences go with the programme and they’re comfortable watching it and they’re not a distraction.
“But we are a commercial broadcaster and we do need to pay for shows like Bake Off, so I make no apology for there being ads in it.
“We’ve been very, very careful about thinking where the ad breaks sit.”
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Sponsorship of the new show has already been sold to Lyle’s Golden Syrup and Dr Oetker in a seven-figure deal.
Channel 4 is pushing to the limit EU rules that state broadcasters should limit ad breaks to an average of eight minutes per hour with a maximum of 12 minutes.
C4 bosses insist their commercial airtime complies with broadcasting watchdog Ofcom’s code.
And they said GBBO’s ad schedule is in line with all other peak-time programming on the channel.
The move was seen as controversial by purist fans of the show, who think lengthy ad breaks and forced sponsorship will ruin their beloved programme.
They also fear the suspense of the show could be hampered with breaks lined up for just before the week’s star baker and eliminated hopeful are announced.
The return of The Great British Bake Off next Tuesday will be its first showing since Channel 4 bought the rights from Love Productions for £75million.
A Channel 4 source said: "Other shorter Channel 4 shows have more adverts in but there's nothing this length with this many. They have 'run shorter programme times and hence longer ad breaks before in other shows."
REVIEW - Really is what we knead in our lives
WHEN Channel 4 bought Bake Off there was concern it would be off our tellies for two years — and return unrecognisable to fans.
But it is as far from the feared car crash as it could be. It is basically a carbon copy of the BBC version.
Noel Fielding, Prue Leith, Sandi Toksvig and Paul Hollywood all walking into the same venue sounds like the start of a bad gag, but it actually makes good telly.
While Prue looks a touch nervous in the first episode, fans will come to accept her as the new, welcoming face of baking on our TVs.
Her little comments like “nothing a bit of custard won’t sort out” while judging a dodgy bake will become a trademark of the show.
Hollywood is his usual self — blunt and particularly harsh in places, but making up for it by giving out two of his famous handshakes.
Mel and Sue had become a safe pair of hands in previous years, but they looked like they were going through the motions by the end of the last series.
The unlikely double-act of Noel and Sandi, however, genuinely made me laugh out loud more than once.
And they are self-aware too, which always helps. Asked by a contestant how he’s getting on in the new job, Noel replies: “I don’t think I’ll be alright, but you’ll be fine.”
And when another tells Sandi being funny will “only get you so far”, she shoots back: “Thanks a lot.”
Well, it certainly worked in episode one.