Junior Bake Off is a British televisionbaking competition in which young bakers aged 9 to 15 tackle a series of challenges involving baking cakes, biscuits, bread, and pastries, competing to be crowned Junior Bake Off Champion. The series debuted in 2011 as a spin-off from The Great British Bake Off and is also produced by Love Productions. Four series of Junior Bake Off were broadcast on CBBC from 2011 to 2016. Following its parent series' departure from the BBC in 2017, Junior Bake Off resumed with a fifth series in 2019 on Channel 4, with comedian Harry Hill as presenter and Prue Leith and Liam Charles as judges. The fifth series concluded on 22 November 2019. The show will return for a sixth series in 2020.
Format
Each series of Junior Bake Off includes 15 episodes. While The Great British Bake Off features three challenges per episode, Junior Bake Off includes only the technical and showstopper challenges. In the first four series, aired on CBBC from 2011–16, the format featured 40 young bakers aged 9 to 12 years old divided into 10 qualifying rounds or heats. Each episode featured only four bakers, with one winner each episode and the other three eliminated. The winning baker from each heat were brought back for 'Finals Week' which determined the winner. The format was altered in 2019 when the series moved to Channel 4. The episodes were increased from 30 minutes to one hour, the number of bakers halved to 20, and the upper age range of the contestants increased from 12 to 15. Instead of only four bakers taking part in each qualifying round, the bakers are divided into two groups of 10 each, with five eliminated from one group during the first five episodes, and five eliminated from the second group during the second five episodes. The remaining five bakers from each group are combined in the week-long finals, resulting in quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. The 'Star Baker' award, given to the judges' favourite baker in each episode, was not included in the CBBC version of the show but is a part of the Channel 4 format.
The first series began on 31 October 2011 on CBBC.
Series 2 (2013)
A second series began on 11 November 2013 on CBBC. Chef James Martin replaces Hollywood as judge.
Series 3 (2015)
A third series began airing on 2 November 2015 on CBBC, with Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes replacing Craze as hosts. Allegra McEvedy and Graham Hornigold took over from Berry and Martin as judges.
Series 4 (2016)
The fourth series began on 7 November 2016 on CBBC. Allegra McEvedy returns as judge with Nadiya Hussain replacing Graham Hornigold. Presenters Sam & Mark returned to host.
Series 5 (2019)
The fifth series began on 4 November 2019 on Channel 4. Harry Hill presented the series which was judged by Prue Leith and Liam Charles.
