The BBC have accused their rival Channel 4 of "cynically" moving the debut date of the revamped ‘Great British Bake Off’ to deliberately clash with its new baking show.
The broadcaster’s new series ‘Big Family Cooking Showdown’ – presented by Nadiya Hussain – kicked off on Tuesday (15.08.17) at 8pm, but bosses have made the drastic decision to reschedule after they found out Channel 4, who poached the popular baking series in a mega-money deal last year, had chosen to air ‘GBBO’ at the same time.
A spokeswoman for the BBC told the Independent newspaper: "Channel 4’s decision to move ‘Bake Off’ from its long-term traditional Wednesday slot will be a surprise to many viewers who may see this as a cynical move. We never intended for our new cookery show to clash with theirs.
"There is room for both and we don’t, in this instance, see any public value in two public service broadcasters going head to head in this way. We will therefore move our show to Thursday in the best interest of viewers to avoid such a clash."
However, Channel 4 are adamant the timings are merely a coincidence as they’d decided when the show would hit screens shortly after they snapped it up last year.
A spokesperson said: "We made the decision about where to schedule ‘The Great British Bake Off’ a few months after acquiring it and we haven’t moved it since then.
"It is in the original Tuesday evening slot where the majority of past series have played."
The forthcoming series of ‘GBBO’ will debut on August 29 at 8pm and will see Paul Hollywood, who used to judge on the show when it was on the BBC, join forces with restaurateur Prue Leith and new hosts Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding.
BBC accuses Channel 4 of ‘cynical’ move
