The world will get one last chance to say goodbye to Anthony Bourdain and Parts Unknown.
CNN vice president of talent and content Amy Entelis announced in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that the cable news channel would air the final five episodes of the Emmy-winning show this fall.
Entelis also stated that the show wouldn’t continue without the famed chef and author, and the network has no plans to piece together archived footage to create future programming. “We don’t want to start putting things together that weren’t meant to be,” Entelis told the newspaper.
The final five episodes will see Bourdain visit Kenya (accompanied by another CNN host, W. Kamau Bell), an area of the Texas-Mexico border known as the Big Bend, Indonesia, New York’s Lower East Side, and the Asturias region of Spain.
Only the Kenyan episode is completed and includes narration by Bourdain. The other four episodes will have audio of the 61-year-old recorded while shooting at each locale. The production company behind the popular series conducted follow-up interviews with individuals involved in the episodes to tie up all the loose ends left after Bourdain’s death.
Entelis explains:
“Each one will feel slightly different depending on what’s gathered in the field. 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 died by suicide in a hotel room in Kaysersberg, France on June 8. Friends and colleagues are still coming to terms with his death; many of those friends and loved ones are involved in the final episode of Parts Unknown. The last 60 minutes of the series finale is devoted to Bourdain’s effect on the world and will include fan reactions to his passing, along with interviews with sidekicks and friends who’ve appeared on the series.
The penultimate episode will include longtime cast and crew members reminiscing about Bourdain and showcase outtakes and never-before-seen footage from the past six years of filming.
Bourdain’s publisher Ecco—home to his book imprint—announced a Bourdain biography is in the works and slated for a 2019 release.
