Nearly two months after the tragic loss of Anthony Bourdain, CNN announces that it will run the final season of Parts Unknown that the author/TV host was filming when he died. The LA Times reports that the cable network plans to release new episodes that Bourdain filmed in Kenya, Texas, Spain, Indonesia, and Manhattan before his death, as well as a special episode with reflections from the cast and crew of the show, and a series finale about “how Tony affected the world,” with fan reactions and remembrances from people who appeared on screen with Tony. 
 
 The Kenya episode, which chronicles a trip Bourdain took with fellow CNN star W. Kamau Bell, is the only one that was completed before the Kitchen Confidential author took his life in France earlier this summer. Bourdain’s original narration will appear in that episode, but the rest of Season 12 will include audio stitched together from pre-recorded interviews. The Parts Unknown crew is also shooting “follow up interviews” to help fill in the gaps. 
 
 “Each one will feel slightly different depending on what’s gathered in the field,” says CNN’s executive VP of talent and content Amy Entelis. “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 one of the network’s biggest stars. During the first half of 2018, first-run episodes of Parts Unknown commanded the highest ad rate on average for any CNN series. “He was our stake in the ground for CNN’s original programming,” Entelis says. “You’ll find his influence in a lot of what we’ve done.” 
 
 CNN has no plans to reboot Parts Unknown with a different host, but Entelis and her team are working on developing new unscripted series to fill in the gap that Bourdain and his award-winning show left behind. “What Tony did was inimitable,” Entelis remarks. “What we want to do is find a show that captures what Tony is all about. It might be a very different show and look nothing like Parts Unknown.” 
 
 CNN has not yet announced the exact premiere date for the final season of Parts Unknown, but in pervious years, the fall season typically launched in late September or early October. Stay tuned for more updates on the grand finale of Parts Unknown as they become available. 
 
 • CNN will say goodbye to Anthony Bourdain with a final season this fall [LA Times] 
 
 • All Anthony Bourdain Coverage [E] ||||| The TV Academy showered Anthony Bourdain with posthumous Emmys this evening, including Best Nonfiction Writing and Best Informational Series or Special, for CNN’s Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown. 
 
 By the time the dust settled, Bourdain’s program had bagged six Emmys – the most for one year in the series history. 
 
 Producer Lydia Tenaglia noted it was Bourdain’s first best-writing statuette. 
 
 “Tony was nominated for this Emmy many times, but it had always eluded him. So it is with tremendous bittersweetness that I accept it on his behalf,” she said pointedly, accepting Bourdain’s writing win. 
 
 Describing Bourdain’s writing as “always fiercely intelligent, very real, no bullshit” she nonetheless said he would have thanked his longtime lit agent, CNN execs, etc. 
 
 “Actually, he wouldn’t have done that at all,” she continued, giving attendees whiplash and something to think about. 
 
 “But he’s really off on a journey to Parts Unknown,” she said, adding that his crew wishes they “were there to shoot it with him” adding that Bourdain “really would have written the hell out of that episode.” 
 
 Taking the show’s Emmy for Best Informational Series or Special, executive producer Christopher Collins noted Bourdain once described travel as not always pretty, and sometimes heartbreaking, and wondered “Is it possible to feel enriched and hollowed out at the same time?” 
 
 “Yes, Tony, we feel that now,” Collins said. 
 
 Accepting the award for picture editing, editor Hunter Gross thanked Bourdain “for letting me be part of this for the last seven years.” 
 
 In addition to Best Informational Series or Special and Best Writing wins, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown also was awarded the Emmy for Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, while the digital spinoff Anthony Bourdain: Explore Parts Unknown won Best Short Form Nonfiction/Reality Series. 
 
 The celebrity chef and CNN series host died in June at age 61, found dead in his hotel room in Strasbourg France, by close friend/French chef Eric Ripert, when he and the production crew were about to start work on that day’s shooting. 
 
 CNN confirmed the cause of death was suicide. In a memo to staff, CNN chief Jeff Zucker acknowledged Bourdain “brought something to CNN that no one else had ever brought before,” adding, “Tony will be greatly missed, not only for his work but also for the passion with which he did it.” 
 
 Awarding him a Peabody in 2013, the judges wrote “People open up to him and, in doing so, often reveal more about their hometown and homeland than a traditional reporter could hope to document.” 
 
 Former President Obama, who appeared on his program, tweeted “He taught us about food — but more importantly, about its ability to bring us together. To make us a little less afraid of the unknown.” 
 
 CNN is airing a final season of the late Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, with one episode already complete and four others finished by the directors who filmed them. 
 
 The sole episode completed before Bourdain’s death features a trip to Kenya with United Shades of America host W. Kamau Bell. That episode is the last to have Bourdain’s written narration.
– A final season of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown is set to air this fall. CNN says it will air seven episodes in the 12th season of the series, reports the Los Angeles Times. A single episode completed before Bourdain's June 8 suicide in France finds him exploring Kenya alongside comedian W. Kamau Bell. Four other episodes will show footage of Bourdain's trips to Manhattan, Texas, Spain, and Indonesia, with his usual narration "replaced by other voices of people who are in the episodes," a CNN rep explains. They're to be followed by an episode offering a behind-the-scenes look at filming, and another paying tribute to Bourdain. Per Eater, the exact premiere date is not yet known.