Holiday Baking Championship is an American cooking competition series that premiered on Food Network on November 9, 2014. The show has continued airing every year since, with its most recent episodes running through December 2025. It airs from early November through late December, covering the U.S. Thanksgiving and Christmas season. It has become one of Food Network’s signature seasonal franchises.
The show features a group of bakers competing to be named the Holiday Baking Champion and win the grand prize. Each episode is structured around two rounds. The first round, the Preliminary Heat, challenges bakers to create small pastries based on a holiday theme. The winner of this round earns an advantage heading into the second round — the Main Heat.
In the second round, contestants must produce a larger, more ambitious confection tied to the same theme. Partway through the Main Heat, a surprise twist is typically introduced, forcing bakers to adapt. The weakest performer in the Main Heat is eliminated each week, until a winner is declared.
Jesse Palmer has hosted the show since Season 4 (2017). He is a former NFL quarterback who also serves as a college football analyst for ESPN and ABC. He is also famous for hosting The Bachelor franchise on ABC. Bobby Deen initially hosted the series for the first three seasons (2014–2016) before Palmer took over.
Besides Palmer, Holiday Baking Championship features a panel of judges who evaluate presentation, creativity, and flavor of the baked pastries before eliminating one baker each week. The current judging panel consists of Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller, and Kardea Brown (as of Season 12, 2025).
