Great American Baking Show: The Complete Fan Guide

If you love the tent but want an American accent on it, The Great American Baking Show is the official US spin-off of The Great British Bake Off, complete with the same white marquee, the same three-challenge format, and for most of its run the same Paul Hollywood. It is also, quietly, one of the most eventful shows in the whole franchise, having survived a network scandal, a cancellation scare, and a jump to streaming. Here is how it all fits together. The season by season record, with every winner verified against a cited source, lives on our show hub.

The format, in brief

Each episode runs the classic Bake Off gauntlet: a Signature bake where the bakers show their own style, a blind Technical where everyone gets the same pared-down recipe and is ranked from worst to best, and a Showstopper that closes the episode. Amateur bakers only, no cash prize spectacle, and a cake stand at the end. If you know the British original, you already know the rules; the American version's particular charm is watching US home bakers collide with very British challenges, from proper scones to suet pudding.

The ABC years, 2015 to 2020

The show premiered on ABC in December 2015 under the title The Great Holiday Baking Show, a four-episode Christmas run hosted by Nia Vardalos and Ian Gomez and judged by Mary Berry, of original Bake Off fame, and American pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini. Lauren Katz of Ashburn, Virginia took the first title. Season 2 kept the same team, dropped the Holiday branding, and crowned Amanda Faber.

Then came the season that made headlines. In December 2017, ABC pulled season 3 from the schedule after sexual misconduct allegations against judge Johnny Iuzzini, and the remaining episodes, including the finale, never aired. The network announced the winner by press release instead: Vallery Lomas, a lawyer from Baton Rouge, whose remarkable post-show career we cover in Vallery Lomas: where are they now.

The show regrouped. Seasons 4 and 5 brought in Emma Bunton (yes, Baby Spice) as host alongside Anthony Adams, with Paul Hollywood now judging next to pastry chef Sherry Yard. Tina Zaccardi won in 2018 and Brother Andrew Corriente, a Capuchin friar, won the January 2020 finale. After that, the network run went quiet.

The Roku era, 2022 to now

The franchise resurfaced on The Roku Channel, first with a Celebrity Holiday special in 2022, then with a full civilian season in 2023. The streaming era finally gave American viewers the classic judging duo: Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith together, with comedians Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry hosting. Martin Sorge won that first Roku season, followed by Mackenzie Rubish in 2024, Kim Goldfeder Clarke in 2025, and Ruiqi Chen in the 2026 season, which arrived with new hosts Casey Wilson and Andrew Rannells. Roku drops episodes in binge-friendly batches rather than weekly, which changes the rhythm of watching but not the bakes.

Every winner at a glance

The fuller stories behind each champion, with hometowns and what happened next, are collected in every Great American Baking Show winner.

How to get into it

Start with the Roku seasons: the Hollywood and Leith pairing gives them the most classic Bake Off feel, and the shorter seasons (usually six episodes or fewer) make them an easy weekend watch. Then, if you want the strange, scrappy history, work backward through the ABC years. Few baking shows have a backstory this dramatic hiding under this much buttercream.