Parents' Guide to The Great Pottery Throw Down

THE GREAT POTTERY SHOWDOWN follows the same basic premise as its sister series (they share a production company), The Great British Baking Show -- only instead of a sunlight-filled tent in a field, contestants gather inside a circa-1888 industrial pottery complex in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Instead of whipping egg whites and praying their cakes don't fall, the potters featured on Showdown wait days upon days to see if the glaze they chose for a pottery project turned out the way they wanted or if a serving dish they carefully sculpted developed a crack while drying out.

The mediums the contestants work with might be different -- clay vs. flour and sugar -- but the structure is the same: each episode features one major challenge, then one or two smaller challenges -- usually a technical challenge and a "Throw Down" where contestants sit at their pottery wheel and attempt a speed-based project. The contestants are a diverse group of men and women who are passionate about making things, and who cheer for each others' victories while humbly accepting their losses. Host Sara Cox offers jokes and moral support, while judges Keith Brymer Jones and Kate Malone bring the constructive criticism -- and in some cases, happy tears. At the end of each episode, one contestant is named "Top Potter" while another is eliminated. The last clay-handler standing will be crowned Britain's best home potter.