Entertainment

Drew Barrymore Hosts a Pillsbury Bake-Off Special With 24 Home Bakers

Putri ArdhanaPublished 5m ago3 min readBased on 1 source
Drew Barrymore Hosts a Pillsbury Bake-Off Special With 24 Home Bakers
Image by JillWellington from Pixabay

Drew Barrymore is hosting a Pillsbury Bake-Off Classic special, and 24 home bakers will compete for a $25,000 prize. The special airs on 23 November from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time on CBS, and it streams on Paramount+ Premium, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The bakers are split into four groups of six. Each group competes in a round built around one kind of baking: cookies, cakes, pies or biscuits. In the US, a biscuit is a soft, flaky bread, not a cookie. Celebrity chefs Christina Tosi and Dook Chase judge the rounds. Amirah Kassem works as a roaming sideline reporter, moving between the kitchens to catch the action as it happens.

The top baker from each round moves on to the Best in Bake finale. There, the four finalists make Edible Festive Wreaths for the Holidays. The 2026 champion takes home a $25,000 cash prize, a complete KitchenAid equipment package and the Pillsbury Golden Rolling Pin trophy.

The bakers come from across the country:

  • Biscuit Round: Alakananda Krishnan (Woonsocket, Rhode Island), Daniel Will (Chicago), Dillon Evans (Gainesville, Georgia), Emma Watkins (Arlington, Virginia), Lauriel Pera (Phoenix) and Rod Herrenbruck (St. Louis).
  • Cake Round: Aida Ahmed (Las Vegas), Amy Webb (Huntsville, Alabama), Biobele Braid (Boston), Collin Helms (Warwick, Rhode Island), Kathy Cargill (Cary, North Carolina) and Legenia Bearden (Little Rock, Arkansas).
  • Cookie Round: Brittney Williams (New Haven, Connecticut), Kareem Youngblood (Brooklyn, New York), Katie Siu (Brooklyn, New York), Layla Rostami (Houston), Sam McCabe (New Orleans) and Scott Luft (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho).
  • Pie Round: Amy David (Bradenton, Florida), Dayvid Field (Delran, New Jersey), Dionna Humphrey (Orlando), Mamaw Gail Morris (Dorton, Kentucky), Nivek Anderson (Lawrenceville, Virginia) and Travis Gilmore (Austin, Texas).

The competition itself is not new. There have been 53 previous Pillsbury Bake-Off competitions, going back to 1949. This special is a different format for the same idea: a home cook, a kitchen and a prize.

The special is produced by Studio Large Eyes, Pantheon Media Group and Juma Entertainment. Brielle Cohen is the showrunner, the lead creative producer who oversees the show from start to finish.

For viewers, the choice is simple. Tune in on 23 November on CBS, or stream it on Paramount+ Premium at the same time. Either way, the four round winners and the eventual champion will be the people to watch.

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