‘Great British Bake Off’ Season 11 Finale Becomes Highest Rated Show For U.K.’s Channel 4

Naman Ramachandran
·2 min read

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not seen the Season 11 finale of “Great British Bake Off,” which debuted on Channel 4 on Tuesday and will stream on Netflix on Friday.

The season 11 finale of U.K. broadcaster Channel 4’s popular baking competition “The Great British Bake Off” has set viewing records for the channel.

The episode attracted a record-breaking average audience of 9.2 million viewers and a 39.7% share of the viewing audience from 8pm to 9.15pm on Tuesday night, with a five-minute peak of 10.4 million, making it the show’s biggest ever overnight audience on Channel 4.

The previous highest-rating “Bake Off” episode on Channel 4 was the 2017 finale, which attracted 7.7 million viewers and a 34.6% share of the viewing audience and 57.5% share of young viewers.

The Love Productions-made show is the highest rating Channel 4 show since modern records began in 2002, the channel said.

The finale saw Peter Sawkins, a finance student from Edinburgh, named 2020 champion. It drew a 63.5% share of viewers aged 16 to 34 — the highest share of young viewers to any “Bake Off” episode across all channels to date and Channel 4’s highest share of young viewers in 14 years, since “Big Brother” in 2006.

Overall, the current season of “The Great British Bake Off” has drawn the show’s highest share of young viewers since launching on Channel 4 with a consolidated average share of 63.6%. The show began life on the BBC, where it aired from 2010 until 2017.

The current season attracted an average consolidated audience of 10.4 million viewers and 39.8% share, taking into account time-shifted viewing on a TV over a seven-day period, making it the highest rating “Bake Off” series on Channel 4 to date.

The entire season was shot in a bubble due to pandemic safety restrictions and all participants and crew were required to take three COVID-19 tests and quarantine in a hotel for 14 days prior to the commencement of production.

The show is streamed on Netflix as “The Great British Baking Show.”

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