Noel Fielding has been told to "toughen up" by ‘Great British Bake Off’ bosses.
The 44-year-old comedian has impressed producers with his hosting skills on the revamped cooking show thus far, but him and co-star Sandi Toksvig have been getting too emotional when it comes to the elimination part of the competition and TV chiefs have had to remind them that delivering bad news is part and parcel of their contract.
A source told The Daily Star newspaper: "Noel is doing a great job hosting, but he is finding the whole elimination process difficult. Show bosses have told him he needs to toughen up."
Noel and Sandi were announced as the new presenters of the programme earlier this year – just months after Channel 4 swiped the show from the BBC in a three-year mega-money deal – following the exit of fan favourites Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc last year.
They will join regular judge Paul Hollywood – who agreed to move to Channel 4 with the show after he was offered an eye-watering sum of cash – and his new co-star Prue Leith.
Prue, 77, was recruited by bosses after Mary Berry announced she was stepping down as a judge last year "out of loyalty to the BBC" and, although the new line up has received mixed reviews, bosses are confident the format will be a hit with viewers when it returns this year.
And silver fox Paul recently teased that the standard of Channel 4’s forthcoming series of the ‘Great British Bake Off’ is "10 times higher" than it was last year on the BBC.
The 51-year-old star said at the time: "The presenters are on for about five minutes and the bakers are on there for 50 minutes, so they are the stars of the show.
"The characters on this year’s show are the strongest we have had and the standard is ten times higher. People get wrapped up in all this ‘host and judges’ thing too much. They forget that it’s all about the bakers."
Noel Fielding told to ‘toughen up’ by GBBO bosses
