Halloween Baking Championship

Halloween Baking Championship
Genre	Food reality television
Written by	Arleena Pritchard
Presented by	Richard Blais Jeff Dunham John Henson Carla Hall
Judges	Carla Hall Ron Ben-Israel Sherry Yard Damiano Carrara Sandra Lee Lorraine Pascale Zac Young Katie Lee Stephanie Boswell
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	49 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	41 minutes
Original release
Network	Food Network
Release	October 5, 2015 – present

Halloween Baking Championship is an American cooking competition show that premiered on Food Network on October 5, 2015. Like its sister show, Holiday Baking Championship, it's a seasonal program that runs for a few weeks (in this case, the month of October) and aims to crown the best baker of spooky, creepy desserts.

Rounds

Each episode has two rounds. The first round is the "Preliminary Heat" where the bakers are first told of their themes and get varying cook times (anywhere from 30 minutes up to 2 hours) to create a small pastry (usual cookies or small cakes). The person who wins the first round gets an advantage going into the next round, and aren't told until after the second round is announced (and sometimes they're not told until the middle of cooking in the second round). The advantage varies by episode (Ex: exclusive use of a certain baking mold/ingredient or first choice of a specific theme).

The second round is called the "Main Heat" and the contestants get a considerably longer time to bake than the "pre-heat" (in the final round of the final episode they're given several hours to make a large confection). This larger dessert must fit a new theme presented (usually in the same vein as the pre-heat theme). The winner of the "Main Heat" advances to the next episode. One baker is eliminated every episode except for the last one. In the finale it's down to the final three or four contestants competing in a winner-take-all final round. The winner gets $25,000 and a spot In Food Network Magazine in season 4–5.

Host & Judges

Unlike its sister show, Holiday Baking Championship, the panel of judges has changed consistently throughout the series (with the exception of Carla Hall).

The first season was hosted by Richard Blais with chefs Carla Hall, Ron Ben-Israel, and Sherry Yard serving as judges. The second season saw Carla Hall as the only returning chef/judge. She was joined by Food Network personality Sandra Lee and Damiano Carrara to help judge, and comedian Jeff Dunham as the host. For seasons three through five, the show was hosted by John Henson. Lorraine Pascale and Zac Young joined Carla Hall as judges for the third and fourth seasons, while Katie Lee replaced Pascale for season five. For the sixth season Carla Hall returned not only as a judge but as the show's host, accompanied by Zac Young and Stephanie Boswell as judges. John Henson later returned to serve as host in 2021 for seasons seven, eight and nine.

Series overview

Season		Episodes	Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
	1	4	October 5, 2015	October 26, 2015
	2	5	October 3, 2016	October 31, 2016
	3	6	September 25, 2017	October 30, 2017
	4	6	September 24, 2018	October 29, 2018
	5	6	September 23, 2019	October 28, 2019
	6	7	September 14, 2020	October 26, 2020
	7	7	September 13, 2021	October 25, 2021
	8	8	September 12, 2022	October 31, 2022