CNN developing final Parts Unknown season as sendoff to Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown is coming to an end with the absence of its titular adventuring chef, but CNN has enough material to move ahead with one final season as a tribute to Anthony Bourdain, who died at the age of 61 on June 8.

The seven episodes will premiere this fall, EW has confirmed. Though, there will only be one episode of the final season to feature Bourdain’s written narration — the still-untitled chapter set in Kenya with W. Kamau Bell — as it was the only one completed before his death.

Amy Entelis, CNN’s executive vice president of talent and content, told the Los Angeles Times other episodes will feature New York City’s Lower East Side, Texas’ Big Bend area along the Mexican border, Spain’s Asturias region, and Indonesia. According to the Times, the directors who shot these latter episodes for production company Zero Point Zero will finalize the installments using audio from Bourdain while filming on location, as well as follow-up interviews.

Entelis relayed the penultimate episode will then consist of cast and crew members discussing the creation of Parts Unknown, and the finale will focus on “how Tony affected the world.”

“Each one will feel slightly different depending on what’s gathered in the field,” she added. “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.”

Bourdain was on location in France for Parts Unknown when he died. CNN aired tributes to Bourdain on his home network in the days that followed, including Bourdain’s favorite episodes of Parts Unknown. The remaining episodes of the award-winning series were then aired.

Parts Unkown earned five Emmys and a Peabody award.

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