September usually means three things for British citizens: the weather related moaning is in full swing, the “can you believe it” conversations about shops stocking Christmas cards has come around once again and Thursday mornings in the office consists entirely of conversation surrounding the previous night’s episode of The Great British Bake Off.
This year was no different. The programme again took to our screens, with no shortage of peacock impressions, extremely cheeky innuendo and enough food wastage to feed the homeless of London for a month.
Amid the uproar following the news that the programme would be moving from the BBC to Channel 4, Candice Brown took this year’s coveted title. But would she also win the Synthesio Social Listening crown? To find out how she did, as well as other great information, I built a dashboard with Synthesio’s Social Listening platform to see what I could find.
Spoiler alert: the simple answer is no, she didn’t.
According to our Social Listening, Selasi stole that title, as he became known as the king of cool, an effortless heartthrob and to many the “sweet prince.” He endeared to many female viewers with his laid back attitude, subtle yet suspicious flirting with fellow baker Benjamina and, most of all, being a stand out baker (which earned him a place in the semi-finals).
All 3 finalists inevitably were among the top 5 most talked about bakers online, but Val also made it after the legacy and won over hearts that she left during her time in the tent. Her gracious departing speech with the wise words of “love is all we knead,” sealed her place in Bake Off Social Listening history; and just when we thought we may never see her again, she appeared at the end of the finale to say she is planning a baking trip to Ayia Napa! It sent fans wild, with a petition begging for that trip to be filmed and turned into a spin-off show.
However, on the day of the final, Candice collected the trophy and also the most mentions in Synthesio’s Social Listening dashboard. Social Listening showed that users congratulated her online, joined in the emotions of the win and a few female users were left green with envy at the sight of her boyfriend joining in the celebrations.
However, some might say that the baking has been overshadowed this year, due to the news that the programme would be moving to Channel 4 with immediate effect. As a result, hosts Mel and Sue have quit, and to many the definition of GBBO, Mary Berry, has also declared her loyalty to the BBC and decided to stay put. All that will be left is Paul Hollywood and a tent – worth £25m? The majority doubt it very much.
Social Listening showed that there was a lot of negative conversation as people were genuinely devastated that the programme would be moving to a commercial channel, without the charm and charisma of the current judges and hosts.
Some found the humorous side of the decision, whilst others were left saddened. In fact, according to Social Listening, this tweet comparing the situation to Brexit was the 4th biggest retweet about GBBO during the duration of the entire series.
With no positive points to be found from the move, the conversation quickly moved to who would take over for Mary, Mel and Sue in the new 2017 format. The names of Richard Oyade, Davina McCall and even The Chuckle Brothers are swirling around online, but with the grave possibility that it will become the latest of impossible jobs at the BBC. This, following Chris Evan’s doomed Top Gear efforts earlier in the year. Some have already made the decision that they will not be watching; whilst the rest of us await the announcement with bated breath.
Richard Osmond tweeted: “Thank you Mel, thank you @sueperkins thank you Mary. #GBBO genuinely made the world a nicer, happier, kinder place. The fondest farewell.
But saying that, we can save our tears for an extra couple of months as the announcement was made that two Christmas specials would be airing on the BBC in December. Rejoice! We may not have seen the last of the soggy bottoms after all. You can be sure that I’ll be using Social Listening to see what people say during those two specials, so while I wait with bated breath for the announcement of who will take over, you can wait with bated breath for my Social Listening recap of the two December specials in a couple months!
Learn how Synthesio’s Social Listening tool was able to pull data about the 2016 Great British Bake Off by requesting a demo below.
