You can always count on Food Network to embrace the Halloween spirit proper throughout the season, and with October inching closer, their 2021 schedule has been revealed!
This year, discovery+ is joining Food Network for all the spooky fun. Of course, “Halloween Wars” is coming back on the road to Halloween, and we’re being promised the scariest season yet. The season will feature recurring guest star Zak Bagans, and this year’s season of “Halloween Baking Championship” is a delicious tribute to the slasher movies of the 1980s!
From the press release, here’s everything you need to know…
Food Network and discovery+ are the go-to destinations for out of this world Halloween-themed programming, getting viewers into the spirit of the holiday with edge-of-your-seat competitions and mind-blowing edible creations. This year’s Halloween event features a new season like no other of Halloween Wars with paranormal investigator and Ghost Adventures star Zak Bagans lending inspiration to the challenges, Halloween Baking Championship with host comedian John Henson and Outrageous Pumpkins with host actress Alyson Hannigan, plus, new specials Road to Halloween Wars, Kids Baking Championship: Oh My Gourd! and Worst Cooks in America: Halloween Redemption 2, along with themed episodes of recurring series.
“Viewers love our Halloween lineup, an over-the-top, multi-week event full of frights, delights, thrilling competitions and spectacularly spooky edible themed creations,” said Courtney White, President, Food Network. “Each year we look to outdo ourselves and with Zak Bagans bringing inspiration to the scariest season of Halloween Wars yet, along with returning favorites Halloween Baking Championship and Outrageous Pumpkins, Food Network delivers all the Halloween tricks and treats and more.”
A new batch of ten talented bakers from across the country compete to create terrifyingly tasty treats on the new season of Halloween Baking Championship, premiering Monday, September 13th at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network and discovery+. This season pays tribute to 1980s classic slasher movies, kicking off with host John Henson welcoming the competitors to Camp Devil’s Food Lake where only their baking skills will help them survive. Each week the bakers must create killer cakes, creepy cupcakes, and more, to showcase their skills in challenges that pay homage to quintessential horror films. Judges Stephanie Boswell, Carla Hall and Zac Young determine whose devilishly delicious desserts earn $25,000 and the title of Halloween Baking Champion!
Paranormal investigator Zak Bagans has spent the last fifteen years experiencing the scariest supernatural encounters ever recorded, and for the first time he shares those experiences with the eight Halloween Wars teams of expert cake and sugar artists in the new season, premiering Sunday, September 19th at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network and discovery+. Over the course of the season, Zak takes inspiration from his collection of dangerous and mysterious artifacts from his Haunted Museum in Las Vegas to challenge the teams to create frighteningly intricate cakes that are as spooky as they are tasty. One team will be eliminated in each episode by a panel of judges featuring award-winning cake decorator Shinmin Li, and chefs and cookbook authors Aarti Sequeira and Eddie Jackson, and the last team standing will earn $25,000. Before the Halloween Wars thrills kick off, see how the competitors were selected in a special Road to Halloween Wars on Sunday, September 19h at 8pm ET/PT on Food Network as 15 brave cake and sugar artists show off their skills to prove why they deserve to compete for the grand prize.
It’s thrills, chills, and grills on a special episode of Worst Cooks in America: Halloween Redemption. Four ghoulishly disastrous Worst Cooks recruits return for another stab at boot camp on Sunday, September 26th at 10pm ET/PT on Food Network and they will once again face their fears in the kitchen and tackle terrifying ingredients. Under chefs Anne Burrell’s and Michael Symon’s coaching, the culinary hopefuls will create a Spooktacular feast for a panel of culinary experts. The recruits start by making a dish using a mystery ingredient they have been assigned; after Anne and Michael pick their teams, the chefs will teach them to make a buffet for a Halloween gathering in order to win a kitchen upgrade worth $5,000 and bragging rights.
Outrageous Pumpkins with host Alyson Hannigan returns on Sunday, October 3rd at 10pm ET/PT to Food Network with four episodes that take the traditional Halloween pastime to the next level. Seven extraordinarily talented pumpkin carvers duke it out in an outdoor pumpkin competition that defies imagination. Each week the carvers dive headfirst into the most-insane, eerie, and outrageous challenges, executing their intricate Halloween designs to impress judges Terri Hardin and Marc Evan. Only one will earn the coveted title of Outrageous Pumpkin Champion and take home a sweet $25,000 Halloween treat!
Four fan-favorite kid bakers return for a Halloween-themed confection competition on a special episode of Kids Baking Championship: Oh My Gourd! On Monday, October 18 at 8pm ET/PT on Food Network the young bakers must face the creepy pumpkin patch for this challenge and create 3D pumpkin patch pinata cakes. Only one baker will rise to the occasion and say “oh my gourd” when they take home a baker’s dream package of baking goods and equipment worth $10,000!
For more seasonal fun, viewers can also look forward to Halloween-themed episodes of The Big Bake, as well as special themed episodes of Delicious Miss Brown, Guy’s Ranch Kitchen, Girl Meets Farm, The Kitchen, The Pioneer Woman and Trisha’s Southern Kitchen in Food Network’s weekend daytime lineup.