The most recent episodes of Holiday Baking Championship have left Food Network fans asking one thing: Where is Duff Goldman?
Goldman returned to judge the 12th season of the holiday baking competition last month. Though he has appeared all season alongside host Jesse Palmer and fellow judges Nancy Fuller and Kardea Brown, the Ace of Cakes alum has notably dipped out of this season’s last few episodes.
Goldman tasted the contestant’s delicious creations on the show’s December 8 episode, but left ahead of the results. “Bakers, your dessert platters were gorgeous, and we gorged on them,” Palmer stated. “And guess what? Your treats put Duff in such Chrismukkah spirit that he left early to go to a Chrismukkah party. More leftovers for us, I guess.”
Goldman was completely absent from the show’s Monday, December 15, episode, with Stephanie Boswell subbing in for him as a guest judge. “Unfortunately, Duff is a bit under the weather today,” Palmer explained to the contestants and viewers at home.
According to Food Network’s website, Goldman will not be featured on the show’s Season 12 finale on Monday, December 22. Instead, Zac Young will join Fuller and Brown at the judges’ table to help pick which lucky baker gets to go home with $25,000 and the title of this year’s Holiday Baking Champion.
Goldman’s silence about his absence has left fans questioning his unexpected early departure from the show. “Weird how in the last episode, Duff Goldman suddenly peaced out, and it appears he is not in either of the final two episodes as well,” one person wrote via Reddit on Thursday, December 11. “Did he get ill? Did something happen to his family? Did he have a conflict he couldn’t reschedule?”
Another fan added, “Normally a sudden absence like this I’d chalk up to illness, but seeing that guest judges are lined up, it seems to me it was known about in advance… who knows. Just weird not to have him around for the final few episodes.”
Boswell, for her part, is just as clueless about Goldman’s absence as she was filling in for him on this week’s episode. “Where is Duff?” one person commented underneath her Instagram post about the show on Monday. She replied, “He got sick, I guess? Not really sure – I was just happy to be there! 😂.”
On Reddit, one user theorized that if Goldman had fallen ill during production, he could have missed several episodes as a result of the show’s filming schedule. “They filmed these shows back to back. Days in a row,” the person suggested. “So if he was gone for a few days due to illness. Makes sense he was gone from a few shows.” (A source told the U.S. Sun last month that filming lasted around two weeks.)
Absence aside, Goldman recently announced that he and his wife, Johnna Colbry, are expecting baby No. 2. He also celebrated the opening of his first-ever restaurant, Duff’s Deli + Market, last month.
