Discovery+, the latest streaming service, hosts shows from TLC, Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, Animal Planet, A&E, OWN, Lifetime, The History Channel, and more. The service launched on January 4, 2021, with many old favorites as well as some new original series and spin-offs. One of these original series is called Cakealike, and it has something for foodies across the spectrum.
The streaming service is already facing a bit of a controversy as not everyone is happy with their release. While 90 Day Fiance and all its many spin-offs originally aired on TLC, Discovery+ is creating their own 90 Day Fiance spin-offs that will exclusively be available to subscribers. Long-time fans of 90 Day Fiance are not happy with suddenly having to pay for a new service in order to see more of their favorite show. But with over 55,000 hours of programming, Discovery+ may be able to win over fans.
With reality baking shows like Nailed It! and The Great British Baking Show being so popular, Discovery+ was quick to roll out its own baking competition, Cakealike. In this new series, bakers attempt to make life-sized replicas of celebrities out of cake. Celebrity cakes include Lady Gaga, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Kim Kardashian. Having to defy gravity and make lifelike details out of an easily crumbled substance means that even expert bakers are in danger of epic fails, worthy of Nailed It!
Cakealikes is hosted by Tregaye Fraser, winner of season 12 of The Next Food Network Star. The judges are YouTuber and comedian Kalen Allen and cake artist Natalie Sideserf. So far reviews of the show are mixed. Some viewers have enjoyed the first few episodes that Discovery+ dropped the day they launched. Other fans felt the judges were too mean, laughing at the contestants instead of with them. While some judges on other baking competitions have reputations of high standards and brutal honesty, such as The Great British Baking Show’s famously strict judge Paul Hollywood, they do not usually mock contestants the way some viewers felt the Cakealike judges were.
Discovery+ is also offering a host of new original cooking shows featuring familiar faces from Food Network. Besides hosting Cakealikes, Tregaye Fraser is also the star of her own series, Tregaye’s Way about quick and easy family dinners. Chopped Challenge borrows Guy’s Grocery Games’ quarantine technique of delivering challenge baskets to the judges at their own homes and seeing if they can succeed with the kinds of twists they usually throw at contestants. Restaurant Hustle 2020: All on the Line is a documentary co-directed by Guy Fieri, documenting the struggles of restaurants during quarantine.
It’s too early to tell whether or not Discovery+ will be a success. It will depend greatly on if people are willing to pay for yet another streaming service and if the original content is good enough to attract a big audience. 2020 was a good year for streaming services, but it was also an unusual year, where most of the population unexpectedly found themselves at home a lot more. How entertainment will fair in the year 2021 and beyond, only time will tell.
Source: Discovery