Bake Off final watched by 7.7 million viewers – despite tweet gaffe

MILLIONS of viewers tuned into watch the final of The Great British Bake Off finale — despite judge Prue Leith accidentally tweeting the name of the winner 10 hours earlier.

Overnight ratings revealed 7.7 million viewers tuned in to watch as Sophie Faldo was crowned the winner of the show, making it the most successful instalment of the series.

The episode, which aired on Channel 4 from 8pm until 9.15pm, peaked with 8.9 million viewers and had a 37.9 per cent share of the audience.

It means the episode became the broadcaster’s biggest overnight ratings success since the Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony in 2012, which was viewed by an average of 8.3 million.

But the Bake Off ratings are lower than the 14 million who tuned in to BBC One to see Candice Brown crowned champion of the 2016 series.

Bake Off’s fresh triumph came despite Leith accidentally revealing that Sophie was the winner on social media, hours before the broadcast.

Leith had tweeted: ‘No-one told me judging a GBBO final would be so emotional. I wanted them all to win. Bravo Sophie.’

The tweet was later removed from Leith’s Twitter page but by then it had already been seen by some of the show’s army of fans.

‘I’m in Bhutan. The time difference is massive. I thought that they got it six hours ago,’ Prue said.

‘I’m in too much of a state to talk about it. It was a mistake. I f***** up.’

This was the first series of Bake Off on Channel 4, following a controversial move from BBC One.

Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon said: ‘Love Productions, along with Paul, Prue, Noel and Sandi, have served up a showstopper of a series and I’m delighted that they’ll all be back in the tent on Channel 4 next year.’

Author: Paul Miles