I'm glad that you clarified, because Food Network's "Spring Baking Championship" has been through a few hosts in its six seasons on the air. Current host Clinton Kelly is now tied with original host Bobby Deen for the longest run, having fronted the past two seasons.
Given all that turnover, Kelly must have seemed like a safe pair of hands to the show's producers. He's a reality TV veteran — you probably know him either as co-host of ABC's food-themed daytime talk show "The Chew" or as co-host and stylist on the landmark TLC fashion reality show "What Not to Wear."
He did more episodes of "The Chew" (since it aired daily instead of weekly), but "What Not to Wear" had the bigger impact.
He was on the latter show for its entire 10-year run, from 2003 to 2013 — a time when TLC's slate of stripped-down, average-person-focused reality shows were reshaping the network (and parts of the reality genre) in their image.
However, his time on "The Chew" is almost certainly what led him to "Spring Baking Championship." "The Chew" was a talk show first and a food show second, but it nonetheless led to appearances as a guest foodie on loads of other shows. That meant he was a name in the industry when the "Championship" found itself in need of a new face in 2019.
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