“The Great British Bake Off” has been one of the most popular reality competition shows in the world ever since it premiered on BBC Two in 2010.
However, whether you’ve seen the U.K. series (now on Channel 4) stateside on PBS, Netflix or Roku, you’ve experienced the joys of British baking under a different name altogether — “The Great British Baking Show.” The same goes for its U.S. counterpart.
Ahead of the premiere of “The Great American Baking Show: Celebrity Summer” this weekend, judge Prue Leith opened up about the discrepancy on contestant Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s “Dinner’s on Me” podcast.
“I met you initially because I got to be a contestant on ‘The American,’ um–,” the comedian started to say on Tuesday’s episode, to which the food critic answered: “‘Great American Baking.’”
“‘The Great American Baking Show,’” Ferguson continued. “I know, it’s weird that there’s like a different title for the Americans.”
“And the reason is, do you know what the reason is?” Leith then asked. “Pillsbury owns the name of ‘Bake-Off.’ So they wouldn’t let us have it or they, I dunno, maybe they wanted pots of money to use it … They only own it in America.”
Elsewhere in their conversation, Leith admitted she didn’t know Ferguson was even from “Modern Family,” considering she doesn’t watch much TV. That fact should prove comical when the actor competes against fellow funny people June Diane Raphael, Yara Shahidi and Andrew Rannells on Celebrity Summer.
Zach Cherry and Casey Wilson host “The Great American Baking Show: Celebrity Summer” with judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, premiering this Saturday on The Roku Channel.
