Pumpkins and presenters make all the difference in Halloween Wars Season 13 …
Halloween Wars is back for Season 13, and after a few ghastly seasons, it’s scary how good it is again.
The Food Network competition series features teams of cake sculptors, sugar artists and — except for one benighted season in 2021 — pumpkin carvers creating elaborate, spooky-season themed displays. It’s hosted by acclaimed cake artist Shinmin Li, Food Network Star winner Aarti Sequeira and, once again, Jonathan Bennett, who was the reality show’s presenter from 2016-20 before a radical shift in format led to Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures host Zak Bagans literally hijacking the broadcast in 2021-22.
As mentioned above, the 2021 season lacked pumpkins (!) due to COVID-19 adjustments to the Halloween Wars filming schedule that meant the iconic orange winter squash was not in season during production. It’s a forgivable and understandable, if disappointing, detour that’s best forgotten now, and not something you can really hold against the show even though it made it hard to distinguish from other offerings like Halloween Baking Championship.
A recipe for Halloween Wars’ future?
Halloween Wars‘ awkward Zak Bagans era, which hopefully we’ve seen the last of now, at least introduced a spooky new set that was a major upgrade on the Food Network standard sterile-looking group kitchens.
Through it all, ups and downs, the longtime consistent influence and guidance of Shinmin Li kept in place what made this Cupcake Wars and Cake Wars spinoff special for so many years, and the more recent addition of Aarti Sequeira in 2021 only added to the professionalism with a fresh and engaging perspective.
With familiar face Jonathan Bennett’s return as presenter, and the best of what’s been added in recent seasons including the sexy sets designed for the more HD and 4K era, Halloween Wars Season 13 seems to be entering a welcome renaissance on Food Network.
I’m not the biggest fan of the newer competition format, still in place with Halloween Wars Season 13, that splits the teams up into groups of three that compete separately in qualifying rounds — but I can live with it. I’m glad, though, that the show has returned to having an initial “Small Scare” challenge ahead of the main “Spine Chiller” heat, rather than just having one big contest per episode.
In future seasons, it would be great if Halloween Wars would return to the practice in its first 10 season of inviting episodic special guest judges, who were usually horror movie or scream TV royalty (think along the lines of Elvira, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Drusilla vamp Juliet Landau and Stranger Things’ Gaten Matarazzo as well as stars from the likes of the Twilight Saga, Vampire Diaries and True Blood). But unless it’s an one-off guest appearance like that, let’s just leave Mr. Bagans free to pursue his ghost-hunting shenanigans elsewhere. He’s part of the Halloween Wars story now, so an occasional, guest judging appearance wouldn’t be too dreadful …
Halloween Wars airs Sundays on Food Network.
