Bake Off finale draws highest audience since airing on BBC One

The finale of the latest series of The Great British Bake Off aired on Channel 4 last night to record viewing figures.

Closing out the hit cookery competition’s 11th season, the episode was watched by 9.2 million viewers in the UK.

The figure makes it the most-watched episode of Bake Off since the series arrived on Channel 4 back in 2017.

Prior to that, the series aired in the UK on BBC One. The change of channels saw presenters Mary Berry, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins leave the show, while Paul Hollywood stayed on.

The finale also constituted Channel 4’s biggest overnight audience since modern records began in 2002.

Catch-up and on demand viewing is yet to be factored in, which could take the finale higher than the 10.8 million-strong combined audience of September’s series 11 premiere.

However, the episode was still a way off the peaks it had reached when it was still on the BBC.

In 2016, the Bake Off finale was seen by more than 14 million people on BBC One.

In a three-star review of the series 11 finale for The Independent, Sean O’Grady wrote: "Although the judges and the presenters, Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas, are as comforting as a big pile of warm friends, something is missing. There is virtually no smut like in the Mel and Sue era.

“Let’s face it, the producers might have been a bit satirical this year, given everything that’s going on. […] But the show and its grand final just didn’t quite rise to the occasion.”

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