THE NEW YEAR STARTS SWEET WITH THE RETURN OF FOOD NETWORK'S "KIDS BAKING CHAMPIONSHIP"

New Season Premieres Monday, January 7th at 9pm ET/PT

New York - November 27, 2018 - The New Year gets a sweet start with the return of Kids Baking Championship on Monday, January 7th at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network. A dozen new talented young bakers, ranging in age from 9 to 13, will be tested in difficult dessert challenges during the new season. From sugar cookies to mini cheesecakes, and from macarons to brownies and blondies, Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman mentor the bakers through the tasty tasks to see who will measure up in the competition. Only one will take the cake and the sweet grand prize of $25,000, a feature in Food Network Magazine, and the title of Kids Baking Champion!

"This season of Kids Baking Championship delivers new challenges with surprising twists, making this the toughest most exciting competition yet! Even the most skilled pastry chefs would crumble under the pressure," said Courtney White, President, Food Network. "The abilities of the young bakers to create outstanding treats is truly remarkable."

This season showcases exciting new challenges featuring the latest dessert trends, lots of irresistible sweets, and tons of flavor and fun. Throughout the ten episodes the competitors show off their skills and creativity as they whip up impressive confections, from freaky flavor tarts using ingredients like jalapeno, goat cheese yuzu and anise, to dramatically erupting monkey bread volcanoes.

On the premiere, the bakers must serve cupcakes featuring Duff's favorite ingredient - bacon. But that's not all, each baker must also include an assigned ingredient like maple, chocolate, peanut, caramel, cinnamon, ginger, or cherry. Just when they get baking, Valerie throws the bakers a curveball and adds another one of her favorite ingredients into the mix - marzipan. The baker that crumbles under the pressure will be eliminated. On Monday, March 11th at 9pm ET/PT, the championship concludes as one talented baker will rise to the top in the grand finale.

Kids Baking Championship competitors include: Jenna Alnatur (Clifton, NJ; age 9), Gavin Crawford (Pearland, TX; age 11), Paige Goehner (Blaine, MN; age 11), Misha Jones (Annapolis, MD; age 12), Brooklyn Kyzar (Silverhill, AL; age 12), Kasey Moeggenborg (Rockford, MI; age 13), Jaxon Remillard (Mansfield, TX; age 11), Meadow Roberts (Minneapolis, MN; age 10), Nyah Rosado (New Rochelle, NY; age 11), Davis Sams (Vancouver, BC; age 13), Madison Totaro (Austin, TX: age 11), and Karthik Vemparala (Somerset, NJ; age 11).

Fans can relive the most dramatic, creative, and adorable moments with video and photo highlights at FoodNetwork.com/KidsBakingChampionship. Plus, go behind the scenes with Duff and Valerie, and discover more baking tips, and follow all the decadent action using #KidsBakingChampionship.

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FOOD NETWORK (www.foodnetwork.com) is a unique lifestyle network, website and magazine that connects viewers to the power and joy of food. The network strives to be viewers' best friend in food and is committed to leading by teaching, inspiring, empowering and entertaining through its talent and expertise. Food Network is distributed to nearly 100 million U.S. households and draws over 46 million unique web users monthly. Since launching in 2009, Food Network Magazine's rate base has grown 13 times and is the No. 2 best-selling monthly magazine on the newsstand, with 13.5 million readers. Food Network is owned by Discovery, Inc., a global leader in real life entertainment spanning 220 countries and territories; the portfolio also includes Discovery Channel, HGTV, TLC, Investigation Discovery, and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.