We nearly had GBBO right in our grubby American paws, and Netflix let it slip away.
Admitting he didn’t think the BBC would let Mary, Paul, Mel, and Sue get away, chief content officer Ted Sarandos agreed Netflix was “slow off the mark” and missed the chance to snap up the whole crew:
We knew it was brewing, but I didn’t actually think it would happen.
Ah, well, at least we’ll still have the opportunity to watch Mary, Mel, and Sue do their own series, while Paul — who’s the only original-flavor Bake Off member making the jump to Channel 4 — may have found his perfect host; thus, we’ll have two British baking competition shows.
On the flip side, Sarandos seems quite happy with Netflix’s Black Mirror acquisition, and, upon hearing Channel 4 chief creative officer Jay Hunt hypocritically complaining — “Black Mirror couldn’t be a more Channel 4 show. We grew it from a dangerous idea to a brand that resonated globally” — about having lost the series, Sarandos didn’t hesitate to stand up for its creator, Charlie Brooker.
I think Charlie Brooker would take great exception to the notion that they developed the show. That is the work of Charlie Brooker, who is a brilliant television creator, and the ambitions that he and [executive producer] Annabel Jones had for the new season were … seemingly out of reach or beyond the appetite that Channel 4 had for the show. So they cancelled it. And we picked it up.
It’s getting crazy out there in TV Land.
The Great British Bake Off Season Finale airs tomorrow on BBC One; Black Mirror (which we’ll cover this week) is currently streaming on Netflix .
