geri_chan | The Great American Baking Show cancelled

Well, this sucks. I was looking forward to watching The Great American Baking Show but ABC has decided to stop airing the show after judge Johnny Iuzzini was accused of sexual harassment by former employees. I realize that me not getting to see a TV show is pretty trivial in comparison, but I do feel really bad for the contestants. Filming of the series has already been completed, and presumably Iuzzini was already paid for his participation, so who really gets hurt most by this but the contestants? His reputation will take a hit and his career will probably suffer, but that would have happened anyway once the allegations were made public. But the contestants won't get to show off the bakes that they worked so hard on, and while ABC says the winner will be announced later, I expect it will probably just be a brief statement and they won't get their shining moment of glory.

I realize it's a difficult situation. It would insensitive to say the least if ABC continued to run the show as if nothing had happened, and it wouldn't be practical to edit Iuzzini's scenes out of the show since he's an integral part of it. But OTOH, the contestants are being punished for something that isn't their fault. I kind of wish that ABC had just put the episodes online for streaming and let viewers decide whether they want to watch the show or not.