Nailed It! Is The New Netflix Baking Show You’re Really Gonna Want To Watch

Cooking shows are very good at luring us into a false sense of affinity with their ‘amateur’ contestants. That is, at least, until we come to watch them casually whip up 12 (relatively) perfect arlettes (no I don’t know what they are either) from scratch with only half a recipe to follow.

Unlike our beloved Great British Bake Off, *Nailed It! *does no such thing. On this new Netflix show the participants are just as rubbish as we secretly want them to be.

As with most televised game shows, the premise could be way simpler than it is, but where would the organised fun be in that? It’s over the top and pretty much everything you could possible ask for from a 30 minute episode series about average Joes who are just as shit at baking as you are.

Each episode invites three new contestants to battle it out at over-equipt kitchen stations to win $10,000. We’re talking big cash here, kids. Cash that is propelled at the winner from a dollar bill gun, and that’s only the iceberg of the type of gameshow gold that unfolds.

There’s an America’s Next Top Model-vibe that comes from the low-level shade thrown by host Nicole Byer who sits on a glossy judging panel alongside head judge, pastry chef Jacques Torres and various guest experts who are introduced to the show each week. Each contestant has to enthusiastically shout ‘nailed it!’ as they present their disastrous imitations of elaborately decorated cake pops, jelly filled donuts and three-tiered wedding cakes. There are special ‘panic’ buttons, foot races to chose baked goods from behind door number one and a gaudy gold chef’s hat for the winner of the first round to wear for the rest of the episode.

Enticed yet? Okay. Maybe you’re just confused. So were we, until we got through the first episode and then we were unashamedly hooked. Here’s everything you need to know you so you can join us on this joyfully manic cake journey.

Watch The Nailed It! Trailer

What Is Netflix's Nailed It!? And How Does It Work?

Three new bakers are brought onto the show each week, and after a very short montage in which they tell us how much they just love to bake, we're thrown in to the deep end. Behind door number one (yes a literal door) are three differently decorated versions of the same baked good. On the first episode it was a series of relationship-orientated cake pops (a ring and a finger, two halves of a broken heart; you get the picture) and on the second it was various types of donut.

The contestants race each other to the door to select the one that they'd most like to make and then rush back to their individual cooking stations to get going. They're given the recipes on a snazzy standing iPad and have a gigantic pantry of ingredients at their disposal - but that doesn't stop one baker from forgetting to put eggs in his sponge batter, or another trying to punch a hole through raw donut batter even though the one she's meant to be copying (and is on the bench in front of her to copy easily) doesn't have any holes and is in fact filled with jam. But NBD.

While the contestants muddle their way through the recipes, the judges sit and pass judgement from a distance and comment on all the things going wrong. When time is up, each contestant presents their creation with a fervent 'NAILED IT!' in case any viewers forget the title of this arbitrarily-named show. The judges taste, they comment and then crown the best of a bad bunch the winner with the sparkly gold chef's hat. Like being awarded Star Baker on Bake Off and being given an actual star to hold for a little bit.

Not that the sparkly gold chef's hat really means anything, of course. Because when the contestants reach the second and final round, everyone is once again on a level playing field as they battle it out for the cash prize. It's in this round, which is a bit like GBBO's technical challenge, when the contestants have to recreate one of the guest chef's signature masterpieces.

These never end up looking like the guest chef's signature masterpieces, obviously. But as part of the process, the bakers are given two emergency buzzers to press - one that's give them three minutes with one of the professionals to help them save what they've made so far, and another which could do anything from freezing the time on the clock (and halting your opponents in their tracks) or recruiting sassy, comedic host Nicole to distract and annoy the other players. It gets that deep.

Then they return to the judging line up, present their creations for inspection and tasting and after little deliberation, the winner is announced. It is then that they are showered with cash shot from a dollar bill gun.

READ MORE: Delish Vegan Desserts For When Those Sugar Cravings Hit

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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.