The Great British Bake Off finally has an official return date

The BBC has confirmed that The Great British Bake Off will return to television screens on Wednesday, August 24.

The news was announced today (August 5) on the official BBC One Twitter, after tabloids speculated that the show would be delayed so not to clash with the 2016 Olympics.

A return date of August 24 means that Bake Off will face no scheduling clashes with the Olympics, as they are set to finish some three days prior to the start of the competition.

However, it will be a later return than fans are used to – the last two series of the show began airing in the first week of August. In fact, the latest the show has ever aired before this was on August 20 in 2013.

The baking show has weaved its magic to become one of the country’s most-loved television programmes, scoring an astonishing 12.3 million average viewers for its sixth season last year.

Earlier this week, the Sun reported that a source close to the show said: “Bake Off is a juggernaut unlike anything else on the TV. It pulls in huge, huge viewing figures but the bosses still have to think practically. The Olympics is a big deal for the Beeb and they are basically wiping their prime-time schedule to show all of the action. The Bake Off is one of the pinnacles of their year so they’re not going to waste it. The view is if it starts on 10 million plus viewers, it’ll stay there all series. It just makes sense for it to start after the Olympic action has finished.”