What Will Happen to the Parts Unknown Episode Anthony Bourdain Was Working on When He Died?
Bourdain's last shoot before his death was in the Alsace region of France.
When Anthony Bourdain died by suicide on June 8, he was in the Alsace region of France, shooting a potential episode of Parts Unknown with his close friend, chef Eric Ripert. Now, the network that airs the series and the production company behind it have announced that the footage will not be made into an episode.
According to a CNN spokesperson's statement released to People, “The final original episode of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown will be the Lower East Side, airing on November 11, 2018. After Anthony Bourdain’s tragic passing on June 8, it was determined by CNN and the series’ production company Zero Point Zero that we would honor the work with a final season. From the completed footage, the producers were able to create five location episodes (including Kenya, Asturias, Indonesia, and Far West Texas) plus two specials. Alsace was not included.”
Bourdain was also a close friend to Bravo's Top Chef, which has decided not to address his death as part of Season 16, which premieres on December 2.
"We definitely had a discussion about, ‘Is this something we should address on the show?’ and we decided that we wouldn’t," producer and director Dan Cutforth told The Feast. "We felt like it would feel like we were exploiting this horrible tragedy in some ways to make ourselves look good. As much as we wanted to pay tribute to Tony, because he was such a great cheerleader for the show and amazing when he was on the show — he even stepped in and took Tom [Colicchio]’s role in one episode when Tom had something that he couldn’t avoid that he had to leave for. So he was a big part of the Top Chef story going back to Season 2, and had always really spoken very kindly about it. And it was a heartbreaking thing to have happen — what a terrible tragedy. But we just decided that it was most respectful to not address it on the show."
