Sugar Rush has been a huge success for Netflix. The baking competition has a unique twist where time becomes the most important ingredient. Four teams of two bakers compete over a series of three rounds to win the top prize of $10,000. The first round is always to make cupcakes. In the second round the contestants must make a confection or sweet treat. And the third and final round is the big one – the cake.
The show is hosted by Hunter March (host of Emogenius) and the four teams are given a starting time of three hours. The longer they take to make the cupcakes, the less time they have for round two. There is a panel of three judges, which includes Candace Nelson and Adriano Zumbo plus one guest. As each team completes their task they hit the buzzer and get tasted. They then start on round two until all four teams have been judged, however long that takes. At that point, the judges eliminate one team – even if they've started round two. That repeats until two teams are tasked with making the mother of all cakes. Any time they have banked from the first two rounds gets added to three hours and the team with the best tasting cake are deemed the winners.
Sugar Rush: Christmas follows the exact same format but each episode is themed around a different aspect of Christmas. So we have ugly Christmas sweaters, winter wonderlands, Santa's workshop, Christmas carols, the Nutcracker and Christmas trees. You get the idea. As usual, there are teams who excel and teams that really struggle. But the good thing is that no matter how badly some contestants do, the judges can always come up with positive things to say. And that's the beauty of Sugar Rush: Christmas – its positivity. It's fun and uplifting and some of the creations are simply out of this world.
Hunter March is a real gem of a presenter and keeps the banter going which is just as well because Candace and Adriano are very quiet. Hunter brings the laughs, the others bring the expertise so that provides a nice but understated balance. Overall, Sugar Rush: Christmas is easy tv that washes over you sprinkling a little bit of holiday spirit as it goes.
