Great British Bake Off and The Circle posted series high ratings for Channel 4 this week.
Tuesday saw the fourth episode of the Great British Bake Off 2019 as judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith returned with Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig back on presenting duties.
This week’s episode saw the Bake Off go back in time to the roaring twenties. Prue and Paul set three challenges including a Signature that was a decorative take on bakes usually found in slapstick films before a Technical that tested each baker’s timing and consistency. Finally, they faced a three tiered Showstopper based on their favourite tipple.
Just under 6 million viewers tuned in, a series high for the 2019 season.
Straight after, series 2 of The Circle launched live with new host Emma Willis.
The 2019 season kicked off with 1.3 million viewers, up on last year’s opener and winning the slot for the 16-34-year-old demographic.
In social media based reality game show The Circle, contestants reside separately in their own apartments, with cameras watching their every move.
Never meeting one another in person, the sole way they can communicate with each other is through the titular Circle, a voice-activated social network.
The players can be whoever they want on their Circle profiles, as they are hidden behind the screen. They can choose to hide certain things, change their identity entirely or simply be themselves. And because the players can’t see each or hear other, there is plenty of opportunity for gameplay.
Speaking ahead of the series, Emma touched upon the comparisons to now axed Big Brother, which she used to host on Channel 5.
Emma said: “The thing with Big Brother is that for me, I always viewed it with the purist mentality, it was a social experiment. That is always how I watched Big Brother. But this, I very much watch it as a game.
“I hated Big Brother being compared to a game but this is clearly a game with the interaction of people, how they’ll react in certain scenarios and then seeing who is going to be themselves and who is going to play it to try and be the most popular and win that money.”
The Circle airs Monday-Fridays and Sundays on Channel 4. Bake Off continues Tuesday nights.
You can catch up on past episodes via the All4 player.