The Pillsbury Bake-Off Returns To Primetime On CBS November 23. Here Is What The Home Bakers Will Make

Home bakers will be making cookies for a cookie exchange on network television this Thanksgiving week. “Pillsbury Bake-Off Classic,” a two-hour CBS special, airs Monday, November 23, from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, and streams on Paramount+ with a Premium plan, according to a CBS Entertainment release dated October 15.

The contestants are home bakers from across the country, competing over five rounds of baking challenges. CBS describes the range as running “from cookies for a cookie exchange to Thanksgiving pies.”

What The Bakers Will Make

Those two are the only rounds the release names. It does not say what the other three challenges are, or what the cookie-exchange round asks for beyond its name.

Every challenge has the same rule. Bakers put their own twists on Pillsbury products while also showing they can bake from scratch.

The top baker from each round moves on to a finale CBS calls “Best in Bake.” There, the finalists make what the release titles “Edible Festive Wreaths for the Holidays.” The winner is crowned the 2026 Pillsbury Bake-Off Classic champion and takes home a $25,000 cash prize and a KitchenAid equipment package.

CBS has not named the contestants. The release says the special will also tell the personal stories and family traditions behind the bakers and their recipes.

Who Is Judging, And Who Is Hosting

Christina Tosi and Dook Chase judge every round. The release calls them both “celebrity chef judges” and says nothing more about either. Milk Bar’s own site describes Tosi as the James Beard award-winning pastry chef who founded the bakery, which first opened in New York’s East Village. On her personal site, Tosi writes that her career started with her Birthday Cake, Compost Cookies and Cereal Milk.

Birthday cake as a cookie is a flavor we cover too, through a different bakery. Our Copycat Crumbl Holiday Birthday Cake Cookie is a stated copycat of Crumbl’s, not Milk Bar’s: a vanilla and almond sugar cookie topped with cream cheese frosting and nonpareils.

Drew Barrymore hosts. CBS announced the special on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” and the release links to a Pillsbury commercial it labels as the original one featuring Barrymore, without saying when it aired.

Back In Primetime After More Than 20 Years

Pillsbury’s own side frames the special as a comeback. Maria Carolina Comings, vice president and business unit director for Pillsbury at General Mills, said in the release that the special brings the Bake-Off “back to primetime television after more than 20 years.” She added that the company wants to kick off the holiday baking season with it. The release does not say when the contest was last on primetime.

The special is produced by Studio Large Eyes, Pantheon Media Group and Juma Entertainment, with Brielle Cohen as showrunner and three General Mills executive producers.

Baking For Your Own Cookie Exchange

For anyone whose own cookie swap lands before the show does, three of our recipes already name a cookie exchange as the occasion. Cranberry Orange Cookies are a buttery dough with chopped dried cranberries and orange zest. Our Hershey’s Kiss Cookies are sugar cookies rolled in red sanding sugar, with a Hershey’s Kiss pressed into each one after baking. And the Gluten-Free Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprint Cookies are cocoa-peppermint cookies made with gluten-free flour, each filled with dark chocolate ganache and topped with crushed peppermint candy.

None of these use a Pillsbury product, so they would not qualify for the Bake-Off. They are simply our cookies for the same kind of party.