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‘Great British Bake Off’ Cooks Up Record Finale Ratings; Chris Fry Joins Sister Pictures – Global Briefs

In its last regular season hurrah on the BBC, The Great British Bake Off scored its biggest overnight audience ever with an average 14M viewers watching the finale. The peak of 14.8M came just before 9PM local time on Wednesday as the winner was awarded the coveted engraved cake plate prize for what included a 49-piece royal picnic that judge Mary Berry called “an absolute humdinger of a showstopper.” The finale has now become the most-watched program of 2016 in the UK. Last year’s finale had that same distinction with 13.4M viewers in the overnights, but rose to just over 15M with delayed numbers factored in — this year’s Live+ figures will be available in early November, per BBC News. Charlotte Moore, director of BBC Content, thanked the “loyal fans over the last seven series.” Following Christmas specials due to air in December, the baker-naut will move to Channel 4 which acquired the rights earlier this year.

Humans producer Chris Fry is joining Jane Featherstone’s Sister Pictures as an executive producer. Fry will reunite with Featherstone who was previously chief exec of Kudos which produces Humans. She founded Sister Pictures earlier this year and has a slate that includes The Split from Abi Morgan, and Desiree Akhavan’s The Bisexual. Fry’s credits also include Spooks, Mayday and The Smoke. In 2015, he produced Humans for Channel 4 and AMC, which was the biggest drama launch in Channel 4’s history. He is currently exec producing the second season alongside Derek Wax, Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley. He’ll join Sister later this year.

Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers has appointed China Media Capital founder Li Ruigang as chairman and non-executive director. The move is designed to increase cooperation with mainland film and entertainment industries. China Media Capital has a series of partnerships with Hollywood companies. It’s involved in the Flagship Entertainment joint venture with Warner Bros, is a partner in the IMAX China Film Fund and in Oriental DreamWorks, and has an equity stake in Imagine Entertainment. Per China Money Network, Li said he would strive to combing Shaw Brothers film and television resources with global channels across China, Hong Kong and Hollywood to create the world’s best Chinese language films. Since the 1950s, the iconic Shaw Brothers has produced hundreds of films including this year’s Line Walker which made about $91M locally, although production slowed in recent years.

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