Nailed It's Behind-The-Scenes Detail Explains Why The Bakers Are So Horrible

Summary

• Contestants on Nailed It! have no timer during baking; they must track the time themselves, making it a unique challenge.
• Behind-the-scenes Nailed It! takes up to 14 hours to film, with only 30-minute episodes, and contestants are given very basic instructions.
• Nailed It! challenges are created by a team who aim for comedic outcomes, inspired by Pinterest fails.

Nailed It! has become one of the most popular cooking shows on Netflix, with audiences relishing watching chefs fail to recreate baked masterpieces.

The premise for Nailed It! is simple: a group of amateur bakers try to make the impossible happen in a limited amount of time. The winner of each episode gets a $10,000 prize, but the show is less about who wins the competition and more about who is the most entertaining.

Hosted by comedian Nicole Byer and French pastry expert Jacques Torres, Nailed It! blends the extravagant cakes of Cake Boss with the amateur bakers of The Great British Bake Off.

There Is No Timer For Nailed It! Contestants While Baking

Actor and comedian Paul Scheer appeared on Nailed It!'s holiday special and revealed some Nailed It!'s behind-the-scenes details that viewers don't see during the show.

He explained that contestants must keep track of their own time while their desserts are baking. Unlike other competition shows like Top Chef, there is no one calling time or any type of timer provided for Nailed It! contestants.

"It's weird … there's no timers. So like, if I need to cook a cake for 25 minutes, I have to like mentally keep track of it," Paul explained. "But I don't have a watch, so I have to look [wherever I could]. It made it hard. It was really, really hard." His biggest advice to future competitors was to keep an eye on the clock and focus on prepping the cake.

Although the show is formatted into easy-to-watch 30-minute episodes, the filming process of Nailed It can take up to 12 hours. Two hours are dedicated to hair, makeup, and wardrobe. Ten hours are dedicated to filming the show, although it has been known to take 14 hours to film the show.

Are The Nailed It! Challenges Impossible?

Although the cakes on Nailed It! look impossible, they actually are tested to make sure that they can be achieved to some level by contestants.

"As a team we look at the overall creative and what the cake is and then what the pieces of the cake are, and then we find people who can basically test it out as if they were a contestant. We set up everything just as if they were on the show, and then we tailor things like the time or the extra details."

The contestants are given very basic instructions on how to make the cake, which is where the drama and tension comes from. Comedian Paul Scheer explained what contestants are given to create the bakes on Nailed It!.

"No, no, it's very basic. It's like everything is set up there for it to be the best show that it is, right? Which means there's a difference between it being a great show and it [showcasing] a great baker."

"You know, they want to create drama, and they want to create tension and panic..."

"And they get all those things. It was really, really fun."

When questioned about how real the show is and how bad the bakers are, Nicole and Jacques confirmed the Netflix show is very much real and no one is faking their skills. "It’s what baking is about — the first time you do something, you don’t quite succeed. Do it a few times and then you do it better and better. Don’t give up and keep doing it, and eventually you will be a good baker."

Nicole has become known for her reactions to the bakes, and none of that is fake. "Everybody is pretty awful! They're all like, 'I love to bake. I want to bake better for my kids!' And then I get served poison," she joked before admitting that 90% of the food served to her is inedible. "And you're watching people, like, mixing stuff with their hands, and it's like, 'Did you wash your hands?'"

How Nailed It! Cake Challenges Are Created?

The challenges on Nailed It! are actually created and designed by a large team of people. Culinary producer Kim Seeley opened up about the process and how much thought goes into each creation. They consider current events, social media, hot trends, and subjects that aren't commonly found in culinary shows.

Nailed It! was originally inspired by Pinterest, where users could see images of baked creations, but they usually come with little to no information on how to make it.

"How did you get from A to B without any of the information that you're trying not to supply!? The fails that come from that are so natural, because without information, how are you supposed to know what you're doing? It just became such a thing to see people posting these fails, and it naturally turned into Nailed It!" Kim explained.

The team puts together all the ideas and decide which would be the funniest outcome for Nailed It!. Their mini-mission is to make a comedy baking show and not a serious cooking competition. As the seasons went on, the production team started looking more at what people were doing on Pinterest and TikTok.

"So, everyone kind of takes a step back and says, 'Is that really funny? What would the funny outcomes be?' That really helps us narrow down the ideas and what the show content will be. From there, it’s just honing the techniques and the things that will make people just giggle uncontrollably in the final product, like, 'Are there things that if it’s missing will be hilarious?'"

Who Creates The Nailed It! Inspiration Cakes

Nicole Byer is joined by Jacques Torres, a world-renowned pastry chef, but he doesn't actually make the inspiration cakes. Charity George actually makes these over-the-top creations for Netflix. She has been a professional baker for over three decades and owns d'Zrt Cake Studio in La Mesa, California.

Charity revealed that her job making the treats keeps her busy, sometimes making four a day. While viewers have never seen her face, it is her hands on screen. "The hands you see making the things when Jacques is explaining how to do it the right way ... that's me," she said.