Channel 4 has announced The Great British Bake Off start date - and it has caused the BBC to shift its Big Family Cooking Showdown to a different day.
The first edition on Channel 4 since they snatched the show from the BBC will air on Tuesday, August 29 at 8pm, which would've put it directly up against BBC Two's rival series The Big Family Cooking Showdown.
The BBC has responded to Channel 4's decision to air The Great British Bake Off against its own cooking series by moving it to another day entirely to avoid a clash.
"Channel 4's decision to move Bake Off from its long-term traditional Wednesday slot will be a surprise to many viewers who may see this as a cynical move," a BBC spokesperson said.
"We never intended for our new cookery show to clash with theirs. There is room for both and we don't, in this instance, see any public value in two public service broadcasters going head-to-head in this way.
"We will therefore move our show to Thursday in the best interest of viewers to avoid such a clash."
The Big Family Cooking Showdown - featuring former Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain as co-host alongside Zoe Ball - launched last night (August 15) to more than 1.7 million UK viewers.
That's not great compared to Bake Off, which used to got around nine million on BBC One, though it remains to be seen whether Channel 4 can achieve similar numbers.
Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig replace Mel and Sue as hosts of the revamped Bake Off, while Prue Leith takes over from Mary Berry as a co-judge, alongside the sole remainer, Paul Hollywood.
His decision to stay with the channel-switching show caused a storm when the move was announced during what proved to be its final run on BBC One.
"It has been hard because I was called a traitor over my decision to leave the BBC to go to Channel 4," he said.
"The other three left for whatever reason but I didn't want to lose my job. The show found me and I didn't want to turn my back on them."
The tent of dreams awaits. #GBBO. 29.08.17. pic.twitter.com/NxEUTPXsEs
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) August 16, 2017
