The Bizarre GBBO Filming Rule That Contestants Dislike Most
Being on "The Great British Baking Show" takes up a lot of the bakers' time and energy, from the moment they apply to filming the season. And then they have to keep mum about the show until it airs, which is easier said than done. There are a lot of rules that GBBO contestants must follow while they're in the tent — and even when they're not.
Bakers are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement when they're cast. They can't tell anyone, not even their families and close friends, that they're on the show until it airs. Season 8 contestant Stacey Hart told her children and friends that she had enrolled in a course because "they would tell the world, my kids, they couldn't keep that secret."
Cell phones are also off-limits on set, which is understandable but nerve-wracking for some contestants, especially if they have a family emergency. "My son broke his arm one day, and I didn't know," said Hart. Once you're done filming for the day, you're allowed to check your phone, of course (via Insider).
There is one rule, though, that most contestants agree is a nuisance.
The same outfit rule is for episode continuity
Would you like to film a baking competition show, in a tent, in the middle of summer, and wear the same clothes the next day to do the same thing all over again? GBBO contestants don't like it, either. It's probably the rule that the bakers hate the most. After shooting an episode for upward of 12 hours a day, the bakers can get hot, sweaty, and stinky — no matter how good those bakes may smell.
Writing for Metro, Season 7 semi-finalist Selasi Gbormittah said that he resorted to "hand washing my tops in my hotel room sink with a bar of hotel soap and then dry them on the radiator overnight ready for the next day's filming."
Bakers aren't provided another set of clothing for the consecutive filming days. In fact, Season 9 baker Antony Amourdoux remarked that, after a few weeks, some bakers started bringing two sets of the exact same clothes.
Baking isn't a clean or neat activity, especially when it's the middle of summer and your chocolate ganache is melting faster than you can put it on the cake. The reason for the rule, however, is continuity (via Insider). When editors are splicing together scenes for the final cut of the show, including challenges and interviews that may have happened on different days, they don't have to worry about a baker wearing a different outfit from one shot to the next.
The one thing bakers do change, though, are the aprons, as Season 13 winner Frances Quinn told Cosmopolitan. At least that might save the front of your clothes from looking like a disaster on an international hit show.