It’s not about the money, that’s the point

Why is it called the Great British Baking Show in the US? When it’s actually called the Great British Bake Off. Never understood why.

This is why the calibre of contestants and the quality of the show is just… better than anything America makes. Not everything is about winning $100,000 to pay off the medical bills from that broken arm when you were 12 in other countries and we like it that way.

The show started on the BBC and they can't offer large prizes because they're funded with taxpayers' money (and no advertising or sponsorship is allowed). Now it's on Channel 4 they could but it's not expected for this kind of competition. People who do well get book deals and can build their careers on it. When the $64,000 question format came to the UK the prize was 64,000 sixpences (and that was on commercial TV. But in the past they weren't allowed to give big cash prizes either)

And that’s why I’m massively disinterested in American cooking shows with the exception of Iron Chef, Nailed It, and Is It Cake.

The reason the BBC awards trophies rather than cash prizes is because it's funded by public money and can't justify giving out large cash prizes. It was criticised in 2000 for giving out over-generous cash prizes against its own guidelines and hasn't given any cash prizes since then.