Competition Show Tragedy: The American Baking Competition

Did any of you watch this CBS show? The American Baking Competition? It was, admittedly, super hokey. For some unknown reason, Jeff Foxworthy was the host, I had no idea who either of the guest judges were, and they were baking in a giant tent thing somewhere in Georgia. And, on top of it all, they called what they were making "bakes." Never have I heard that term used before. I get the point of it, to make it a general term for everything they were baking, but it still seemed super weird.

The contestants with host Jeff Foxworthy.

Here's the thing though, the prize was pretty awesome. Not only was there money at stake, but also a cookbook deal. A cookbook deal is pretty great. But, much like King of the Nerds earlier this year, when it came time to pick the winner, the judges delivered an epic fail. I literally shouted "WHAT! THIS IS BULLSH--!" and turned off the TV the moment they announced (spoiler alert) Brian as the winner. Brian, who had failed "bake" after failed "bake" throughout the competition, and only just started to do well right toward the end. He finally won the coveted star baker award right before the finale, even though he thought he should win it pretty much every week before that.

I get that he started to do well at the end. And maybe they were looking for some kind of comeback story, but honestly I think Darlene should've won. I would've even been happy with Francine, because at least her cookbook would've been interesting and full of peanut butter. Darlene consistently did well throughout the competition. The only time, really, that she started to struggle, was right there at the very, very end, when the stress started to get to her. I just don't understand giving the big win to the person who was the most variable throughout the competition. They're supposed to be picking America's best amateur baker here, not the person who had the best last couple of recipes.

I'm not sure this show will get another season, or that it particularly deserves it, but I will say the one thing I did enjoy was the various things they had to bake. But this could be entirely because I just love baking in general (duh) and was interested in recipes I'd never seen before.

So, did any of you watch it? What did you think? Am I out of line being outraged or do you agree?