Food Network is once again serving up a festive treat with Season 15 of Halloween Wars. Host Jonathan Bennett returns as the master of ceremonies. He’ll welcome seven teams made up of the best cake, sugar and pumpkin pros in the game to create devilishly good bites.  Of course the challenges will bring an element of spooktacular suspense. From creating scenes depicting childhood monsters to bringing their twisty take on the boogeyman’s lair, these trios of artists will need to pull out all the stops to stand out. 

Judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira have the arduous task of deciding who brought their taste buds to life more. Ultimately, one surviving team walks away with the show championship and the grand prize of $25,000. That could buy a lot of candy. 

Bennett invites viewers “come for the pumpkin carving and stay for the bad dad jokes.” Before the competition gets under way, we caught up with The Groomsmen star to get his take on the frightfully good time ahead. 

It has been almost a decade since you first hosted Halloween Wars. How do you reflect on that experience? 

Jonathan Bennett: I never in a million years thought I would be hosting Halloween Wars for this long, but I’m so grateful to be doing this job and having this job because it’s so much fun. I’m so grateful to the Food Network and the fans that watch and make us one of the top shows of the year. It just shows how much people love the show and how dedicated they are to the show and how much joy it brings everyone. It’s Halloween. It’s pumpkins and candy and cake. What more do you want when we get into that fall season? 

How would you say the show has evolved? 

I think the most fun part of watching the show grow over the past decade is season after season, just when I think we can’t do it any bigger and better, we do it. It’s a testament to our pumpkin carvers, cake artists and sugar artists on the show because they want to top what they did in the season before. I think the reason we get such amazing and mind-blowing creations is because the pressure is on for them to outdo the season before them. They think of the most wild ideas and bring those things to life. That’s really fun to watch. 

I think also the pop culture element of the show is really on point. This season we have  a GSI, ghost scene investigator. With true crime being a popular thing in the world right now, I think the producers saw that. They do a great job knowing what’s hot right now. They incorporate all that into our show so it’s always growing and changing and not stuck in a time period. 

Yet the successful formula remains with a cake, sugar and pumpkin artists working in tandem. What do you think of the teams we’re going to meet this season? 

We have a lot of returning contestants from other seasons. We have a lot of new contestants this season. I think when you put contestants who have done the show before with new contestants, you get a great rivalry. Contestants who have done it before have this sense that they’ve been there and done this before, let me teach you how this is done. Then you have the people who are new saying, “yeah, I’m new and bringing something new to the table that nobody has ever seen before. So, listen to me.” You get this contention between the contestants in a good way that makes each of them rise to the occasion. 

What can you tease about the challenges we’re going to see this season? 

This season we’re tackling some of the favorite pop culture things from Halloween. The themes are always really fun, not just to film and watch the contestants. If you’re a Halloween person and like Halloween and never seen Halloween Wars, you need to for the inspo. Halloween Wars is the best inspo, inspiration board for any Halloween decorating. You’re going to come up with ideas you never thought of in a million years that are going to spark from some of the different challenges and creations on the show. They reinvent Halloween every year with a new twist. I’m loving this for the contestants, but all the Halloween inspiration is from this show. 

Anything you’ve taken over the years and implemented in your own house? 

Here’s the thing. I shoot Halloween Wars in August a year ahead of time. I’m smelling pumpkins and sugar being pulled and blown and burnt, so you have that sugar smell in the air with a pumpkin smell. We get to live it for weeks and weeks. By the time Halloween gets here, I don’t want to look at a pumpkin until next year because I have been inside of pumpkins, surrounded by pumpkins, engulfed in pumpkins the entirety of the show, which is so much fun. But when it comes to putting them in the house, I don’t want to see a pumpkin until next year. I celebrated Halloween when we filmed it, so that’s my Halloween for the year. 

Host Jonathan Bennett and Judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira during the “Halloween Word Games” challenge, as seen on Halloween Wars, Season 15 (Food Network)

How would you describe the judging eye of Shinmin and Aarti? 

I think the judging job gets harder each year because 10 seasons ago the notes and feedback they give to the contestants is so different than it is now. The contestants watch the season that airs, so they know  Shinmini doesn’t like this and Aarti doesn’t like this. They almost have to nitpick even more now and get to the specificities of the creations down to the minute detail that it really levels up the game. It’s really making the contestants work harder. In turn, you have a better product. 

Host Jonathan Bennett and Judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira and all cast portrait, as seen on Halloween Wars, Season 15. (Food Network)

It’s also an exciting time for you because The Groomsmen trilogy is released on Hallmark Channel. What does that mean to you? 

It was fun to have The Groomsmen on Hallmark+, but it’s such a joy to have them on Hallmark Channel because so many people will get to watch this amazing friendship and story about three friends coming together to navigate life and love with each other. What I love about The Groomsmen is when you watch them, they feel real. They feel like real conversations you have with your friends when you’re dating someone or love someone or want to get married. 

It’s all those conversations you have with your friends, we’re actually now showing that on Hallmark Channel. To have such a diverse group of friends represented in The Groomsmen is so powerful and so important that these stories are being told. People that might not have such a diverse group of friends are watching and will be able to connect with the love stories in the movies and see that all these love stories are similar to their love stories. It’s a powerful thing going to Hallmark Channel, and I’m very excited for the world to watch them. 

Jaymes Vaughan and Jonathan Bennett (Jonathan Bennett/Instagram)

When it comes to Halloween, what’s a favorite costume you and maybe your husband have done together? 

My favorite costume we’ve ever done, and the last time I dressed for Halloween was three years ago when I was Elphaba Act 1and James [Vaughan] was Prince Fiyero. That was my favorite costume I ever wore because I’m a Wicked head. I’m the biggest Wicked fan in the world. To get to dress up as those characters, I peaked in costumes. Now I haven’t dressed up because I haven’t found one that I want to do that is bigger and better than that. I don’t know what I’m doing for Halloween, but if I’m going to dress up, it has to be better than Elphaba. And I don’t know what’s better than Elphaba. 

You have found this great balance in your career through hosting and acting. What are you looking for these days in terms of projects? 

I got to be on Broadway last year. I got to do Spamalot for four months, and it was the best time of my life. So, the thing I’m looking for is what live theater I can do next. What’s my next Broadway show? What’s my next live theater experience? It just balancing the scale form TV hosting Finding Mr. Christmas and Halloween Wars, and then acting in movies. There is a pressure and very intense world with so many cooks in the kitchen when you’re doing these things. What I loved about Broadway and doing live theater is that when the curtain goes up, it’s just me and the audience and the other cast members on stage. There are no notes, no changes, things adjusted or re-filmed. When the curtain goes up, it’s just me and the audience. That’s where I feel most at home, when I’m just entertaining. 

Halloween Wars Season 15 premiere, September 21, 9/8c, Food Network (Next Day on HBO Max)