Is Nailed It! Real Or Scripted?
The Netflix baking show hosted by standup comedienne Nicole Byer and well-known pastry chef and chocolatier Jaques Torres is arguably one of the most hilarious/horrific cooking shows on air today. Nailed It! challenges a group of what can only be called the best of America's worst bakers to copy and recreate jaw-dropping, professional creations — mostly with disastrous consequences. In fact, the baking is so bad, fans have actually begun to wonder whether the show is actually made up.
As one Reddit user puts it, "There's a few bizarre moments, in particular, one of the professionals not knowing what to say and the show cutting to a shot of the teleprompter. It's mostly the contestants that are throwing me off — they all seem like characters, particularly from the second episode on — I mean, one of them owns a baking food truck and is disastrous at replicating the challenge?"
The food served on Nailed It! can be inedible
If Nailed It! is scripted, Byer and Torres would have to be amazing actors to fake their reactions at basically being served inedible food. Byer says of the contestants, "They're all like, 'I love to bake. I want to bake better for my kids!' And then I get served poison. 90 percent of it. It's all pretty awful. And you're watching people, like, mixing stuff with their hands, and it's like, 'Did you wash your hands?'" (via Distractify).
Torres shares similar sentiments, saying, "We eat raw dough. We eat raw cookie. We eat massive buttercream in cakes that are still warm. We eat salt. We have to taste things that you will not put in your mouth. But you know what? That's television. You have to do it" (via Vulture).
On top of tasting questionable food, Byer and Torres tell Vulture that each show, which may just be 30 minutes long to watch, can actually take an average of 10 hours a day to shoot, which means plenty of editing (and which can also explain the awkward transitions we see from time to time). Between long days and questionable food, we're glad Byer and Torres love what they do, because Nailed It! would be a different show without them.