Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown Will Return for a Final Season on CNN
After Anthony Bourdain's death, CNN will air Parts Unknown's final season.
It's been nearly two months since Anthony Bourdain committed suicide in France on June 8 during filming for his CNN show Parts Unknown. Since his death, the show has scored six Emmy nominations; been the subject of an online fan petition to protect its Netflix presence; provided eerie insight into Bourdain's thoughts on death; and now we know it will return for a final season on CNN.
The news network has enough material to air the final season, set to premiere this fall, according to The Los Angeles Times. Only one episode — a trip to Kenya with Bourdain's fellow CNN host W. Kamau Bell — was finished before Bourdain's death. It will be the last episode to include Bourdain's own poetic narration, considered by fans to be transcendent wisdom.
Episodes set on the Lower East Side of New York City's Manhattan island, in Texas near the Mexican border, and in Spain and Indonesia, will be completed their directors, using audio of Bourdain.
Another will feature the cast and crew sharing behind-the-scenes insights and footage. The last hour will include loved ones and fans discussing Bourdain's impact on the world.
Parts Unknown has been hugely successful for CNN: In the first half of 2018, commercials on first-run episodes sold for an average of $8,601, the most of any CNN show, according to Standard Media Index, and cited by The L.A. Times. CNN relied on the show often, and especially, when news was slow; it ran 166 times between October 1, 2017 and June 14, 2018.
