Former Channel 5 boss David Elstein has likened Channel 4′s deal on the Great British Bake Off to “buying Corrie without Ken Barlow”.
As Mary Berry, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins decided not to follow the BBC show to Channel 4, Elstein suggested Paul Hollywood would not carry the show on his own.
He wrote in The Sun that Channel 4 had “done itself no favours” with the deal, rumoured to be worth £25 million per year.
“The news that Mary Berry has joined Mel and Sue in not going to C4 makes their decision even more foolish”, he said.
“I have been a chief executive of a TV channel and my board would have been livid with me if I hadn’t locked in the judges and presenters.
“It is a bit like buying Corrie without Ken Barlow.”
He suggested Channel 4 should have looked at Paul’s US version, The American Baking Competition, which failed “because the chemistry with the other presenters didn’t work”.
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