Cake Boss is an American reality television series that originally aired on the cable television network TLC. The series premiered on April 19, 2009, and has spawned four spin-offs: Next Great Baker, Kitchen Boss, Bake You Rich, and Bakery Boss. On January 26, 2015, Cake Boss was renewed for two additional seasons, which aired on TLC until 2017. Season 9 premiered on May 18, 2019, with the show moving to TLC's sister network, Discovery Family. The show officially ended on April 11, 2020.

Plot

The show follows the operations of Carlo's Bake Shop, an Italian-American family-owned business in Hoboken, New Jersey owned and operated by siblings Buddy Valastro (to whom the series' title refers), Lisa Valastro (Buddy's sister), Maddalena Castano, Grace Faugno and Mary Sciarrone. The show focuses on how they make their edible art cakes and the interpersonal relationships among the various family members and other employees who work at the shop.

Cast

Reception

The popularity of the show resulted in increased business for Carlo's Bake Shop, and increased tourism to the Hoboken area. Due to the popularity, Carlo's Bake Shop became a tourist attraction, with lines to enter the bakery often extending down the block and around the corner. In 2010, Hoboken renamed the corner of Washington Street and Newark Street to "Carlo's Bakery Way" in honor of the bakery's centennial. Season one averaged 2.3 million viewers while season two averaged 1.8 million viewers. In 2016, a New York Times study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that Cake Boss's "audience is generally not urban; in fact, one hot spot is Appalachia".

Tie-ins and spinoffs

On November 2, 2010, Buddy Valastro's book, Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia, which is based on the series, was released. Published by Atria Books (a division of Simon & Schuster) in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Carlo's Bake Shop, the book features the history and stories of Valastro's family and the bake shop, along with recipes. Valastro's second book, Baking with the Cake Boss: 100 of Buddy's Best Recipes and Decorating Secrets, is a cookbook, also published by Atria Books, released November 1, 2011 and featuring Valastro's cake, pastry and decorating recipes. The success of Cake Boss has led to a spin-off competition series hosted by Valastro, Next Great Baker, in which people compete to win a top cash prize, other valuable prizes, and an apprenticeship at Carlo's Bakery. The program's first season was seen on TLC December 6, 2010 through January 24, 2011, with a second season televised November 28, 2011 to January 30, 2012. The competition's third season premiered on Monday, November 26, 2012. Another spinoff series, Kitchen Boss, debuted on January 25, 2011. It featured Valastro presenting his family's recipes, as well as special guests, including members of his own family. A backdoor pilot special, Bakery Boss, debuted on May 27, 2013. The special features Valastro traveling to a struggling bakery, Friendly Bake Shop in Frankfort, New York, and helping them reverse their fortunes, using a format similar to Kitchen Nightmares. The program returned to TLC as a series on December 2, 2013, and was later renamed Buddy's Bakery Rescue. Buddy's intern, Ashley Holt, served as Culinary Producer for the series. Cake Boss also has a product line that features baking pans and decorating accessories. In October 2023, it was announced by Valastro that he would host a new television show, Buddy Valastro's Cake Dynasty, airing on A&E. The new series also includes his four children, who Valastro says are now old enough to be a part of the show. The show premiered on November 11, 2023.

Episodes

Controversies

In July 2010, Masters Software, Inc., of Cedar Park, Texas, obtained a preliminary injunction forbidding TLC from calling its show "Cake Boss". Since 2006, the company has operated the domain name cakeboss.com, and since 2007, it has sold a bakery management program called CakeBoss. The suit claims that Discovery Communications infringes on its trademark by causing confusion among customers and vendors. In October 2010, Masters Software and Discovery Communications reached a settlement, the details of which are not public. On June 11, 2012, transgender celebrity Carmen Carrera appeared in a Cake Boss episode, "Bar Mitzvah, Beads and Oh Baby!", in which she unknowingly participated in a prank involving Cousin Anthony, who was set up with a date with Carrera. The punchline of the prank had Buddy tell Anthony that Carrera is transgender. Carrera agreed to participate in the prank on the program in part to promote equality for the transgender community saying, "I'm totally cool with a prank like this, I, you know as long as it's in good fun." Following the airing of the program, Carrera was upset by an interview portion of the program where Buddy said, "And I tell him...that's a man, baby!" Carrera made a statement saying, "I made it VERY clear to the producers on how to use the correct wording before agreeing to filming this but instead they chose to poke fun and be disrespectful. That's not what I'm about! ... I may not have been born a woman, but I'm NOT a man... After taking this journey it's not fair at all to be lied to by the producers." Buddy Valastro apologized for the incident, saying, "I owe an apology to the entire LGBT community. It was absolutely not my intention to upset or offend her, or anyone within the community, and I was wrong to use the words I did. I am a supporter of gay rights and equality, and while I regret this situation and my choice of words, I am thankful to have received this feedback and the opportunity to learn from this mistake. I hope that Carmen accepts my sincere regrets." The following day, on June 12, 2012, TLC announced that "Bar Mitzvah, Beads and Oh Baby!" had been pulled from rotation indefinitely, with plans to re-edit the episode. The episode has since re-aired on July 23, 2012, but with the offending scene re-edited.

In popular culture

Comedian Paul F. Tompkins plays a parody of Cake Boss host Buddy Valastro on the Comedy Bang Bang podcast and IFC TV show.