CNN releasing final season of Anthony Bourdain’s ‘Parts Unknown’

Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown.”
CNN

• CNN is releasing a final season of Anthony Bourdain’s
  docuseries “Parts Unknown” this fall, The Los Angeles Times
  reports.
• Bourdain committed suicide in June while filming an
  episode of the series in France.
• The five-episode final season, the 12th in the series,
  will only feature one episode with Bourdain’s voiceover
  narration, while the other four episodes will piece together
  footage of Bourdain with follow-up guest interviews that are
  yet to be filmed. 

CNN will release a final season of Anthony Bourdain’s travel
docuseries “Parts Unknown” this fall, The Los Angeles Times

reports. 

Bourdain
committed suicide in June while filming an episode of the hit
series in France.

Amy Entelis, the executive vice president of talent
and content at CNN, told the Times that only one episode of the
show’s final season was completed before Bourdain’s death.

That episode, filmed in Kenya with W. Kamau Bell, host of
CNN’s “United Shades of America,” will be the only episode of the
five-episode season to feature Bourdain’s written voiceover
narration, Entelis said. The other four episodes will piece
together footage of Bourdain with follow-up interviews that are
yet to be filmed, featuring guests of the show remembering its
late host.

“Each one will feel slightly different depending on what’s
gathered in the field,” Entelis told the Times. “They will have
the full presence of Tony because you’ll see him, you’ll hear
him, you’ll watch him. That layer of his narration will be
missing, but it will be replaced by other voices of people who
are in the episodes.”

Entelis said that the last episode of the series will be
devoted to “how Tony affected the world.” It will feature fan
reactions to his program and interviews with guests who appeared
on the series.

The Times notes that in the first half of 2018, commercials
on new episodes of “Parts Unknown” earned an average of $8,601,
the most of any CNN program, according to Standard Media Index.
CNN ran the show in re-runs 166 times from October 1, 2017,
to June 14 of this year, according to the Times.

The series has also had a second life on Netflix. In June,
following Bourdain’s death, Netflix
extended a deal to keep “Parts Unknown” on its service for
the foreseeable future, after fans petitioned the company to
renew its license for the series, which was set to expire in
June.

Read the Times feature here.