20 | DECEMBER 9 • 2021
OUR COMMUNITY
O
n the new NBC show
Baking It, Detroit-
born journalist and
comedian Norma Zager is
known as the “Jewish bubbie.
”
The former Detroit Jewish
News contributor will be one
of four hosts judging the new
baking series produced by Amy
Poehler, which will stream
on NBC’s streaming service
Peacock beginning Dec. 2 and
began airing on NBC Dec. 3.
“I am Bubbie Norma,
” Zager,
74, of Beverly Hills, California,
jokes.
The six-episode show,
co-hosted by Maya Rudolph
and Andy Samberg, will
feature eight teams competing
for a chance to win $50,000.
Zager will help play a role in
determining which team goes
home with the grand prize,
tasting their extraordinary
baking creations along the way.
“The food was so delicious,
”
Zager says. “They really made
some unbelievable food.
”
One team, Zager reveals,
even made an edible menorah
just in time for Chanukah. “I
had never seen anything like
it before,
” she explains. “That
really was one of the standouts
of the show.
”
Each episode will feature a
different baking theme, while
the entire show has a holiday
feel thanks to its December
release. Zager says her three
co-judges are fellow “grandmas”
who have decades of experience
when it comes to food,
seriously raising the bar for the
competition.
“You’re talking about
bringing foods to a bunch
of old grandmas who pretty
much have seen and ate it all
by now,
” she says. “Yet we were
constantly surprised by the
originality of these bakers.
”
Zager, who grew up in
northwest Detroit, graduated
from Mumford High School in
1964 and studied at Michigan
State University and Wayne
State University, graduating
from the latter in 1969.
She began her career working
at the now-defunct Oak Park
News as a journalist, later
freelance writing for the Detroit
Jewish News.
After developing a love for
comedy and writing jokes,
Zager sold her work to some
of the biggest stars of our time,
including Joan Rivers. “She was
paying $10 a joke,
” Zager recalls.
Encouraged to move forward
with her comedy career, she
tried a night of standup at Royal
Oak’s Mark Ridley’s Comedy
Castle. It was a bust, but Zager
wasn’t deterred. She tried
again, using leftover jokes that
Rivers didn’t buy on her second
attempt at standup comedy.
“They got laughs and that
was it,
” she remembers of the
jokes she told. “I was hooked.
”
For 14 years, Zager did
standup comedy. Eventually,
she made her way back
to journalism, moving to
California in December 1993.
She became a reporter and then
an editor at the Beverly Hills
Courier, covering major stories
such as the activism of Erin
Brockovich.
Winning awards for her
reporting, Zager even wrote a
book about the experience titled
Erin Brockovich and the Beverly
Hills Greenscam.
In addition to comedy and
journalism, Zager has a love
for baking. While working in
comedy, she started her baking
business Norma’s 14K Cookies
in 1994, selling baked goods to
shows like Roseanne and Seinfeld.
She also hosted a cooking and
comedy show in Las Vegas.
Through her diverse
career, which also included
appearances on HGTV and
daytime talk shows, Zager
eventually landed a spot on
a Food Network show called
Clash of the Grandmas in 2015.
When casting was being
held for Baking It, the staff
remembered Zager from her
time on the Food Network
show.
“They called and asked
if I would be interested in
auditioning for a new baking
show,
” she laughs. “I said, ‘Yes,
as long as I don’t have to cook.
’
So they said, ‘No. We want
you as a judge.
’
“I got the show and they hired
me to be one of the grandma
judges on Baking It.
”
Norma Zager and Andy Samberg
Detroit-born journalist and comedian Norma Zager
will judge new NBC show Baking It.
The Jewish Bubbie
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Maya Rudolph and Norma Zager