An essential guide to PBS' 'Great British Baking Show'

Summer's most delectable TV confection is PBS' The Great British Baking Show (Fridays, 9 ET/PT), a British import that's gradually become a social-media phenomenon, even before launching its third season earlier this month. "It's growing in a very similar way to how it grew in the United Kingdom, which is slow and steady," executive producer Richard McKerrow says. "It's a sleeper hit that draws you in. Once you start watching, you get addicted. It's a bit like cakes themselves."

For the uninitiated, here's USA TODAY's guide to what you need to know:

What is it? 

The Great British Baking Show is a competition in which 12 amateur bakers — including a nurse, a fireman and a stay-at-home dad this season — fire up the ovens to make breads, pastries, cakes, and desserts. Over 10 hour-long episodes, the competitors are judged by Mary Berry, a best-selling cookbook author, and Paul Hollywood, a celebrity chef, in a series of increasingly difficult baking challenges, ranging from macarons to bread sculptures to dairy-free ice-cream rolls.

How long has it been on? 

The show has so far aired six seasons on the U.K.'s BBC, where it's known as The Great British Bake Off. (Producers were forced to change the title because Pillsbury owns the trademark on "bake-off.") PBS first aired the series in early 2015 as a lead-in to Downton Abbey, and has shown its three most recent seasons; one is also available on Netflix.)

What's the pay-off? 

Unlike Top Chef or Chopped, Baking Show victors don't win a cash prize; instead, they walk away with a fancy cake stand. "Winners tend to benefit from the profile of winning it and get contracts to do books and everything else," McKerrow says. "But our show itself, it's an amateur baking show, so there's no commercial prize. It's about the accolade of winning it."

What sets it apart? 

Unlike most fast-paced cooking competitions — set in sleek studio kitchens, with flashing lights and crisp cooking uniforms — Baking Show is held in a big white tent in the English countryside, in which bakers wear aprons over their everyday clothes. The setting is the lawn of "a wonderful, old country house owned by a family," McKerrow says.

While most reality shows thrive on contestant meltdowns and over-the-top personalities such as Gordon Ramsay or Tom Colicchio, Baking Show is far gentler. Competitors are amiable, while Berry and Hollywood dish out blunt yet supportive critiques of their creations. Hosts Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc keep the show moving with zippy puns and light banter, and often lead group hugs when contestants are sent home.

"All the very things that normally people look for in a television show, this is the opposite," McKerrow says. "It's not fast, it's slow. It's not rude, it's kind. At the end of the day, it's about keeping them real.

Are there other shows like this? 

Yes, although they haven't aired in America yet. Over in the U.K., there are two Baking Show spinoffs: The Great British Sewing Bee, a competition for amateur home sewers, and The Great Pottery Throw Down for potters, both of which McKerrow hopes will eventually air stateside.