First for the first time in 2013, the final season of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown will premiere on Sunday, September 23 at 9 p.m. ET. The travel show, hosted by the late chef and TV personality, will have 12 episodes by the end of its run, with each episode exploring locations from the Punjab to the Bronx. Although Parts Unknown Season 12 will have fewer episodes than previous seasons, the final chapter will combine the show's usual excitement with a heartfelt farewell to its one-of-a-kind owner.
Bourdain died in June while filming an episode of "Parts Unknown" in France, CNN reported. Fans, colleagues, celebrities and politicians were all quick to express their heartbreak and admiration for the late host, and it was clear how much he was loved. President Obama tweeted on June 8: "'Low plastic stools, cheap but delicious noodles, cold Hanoi beer.' This is how I remember Tony. He taught us about food, But more importantly, teach us about the power of food to do us good.” Let’s reduce our fear of the unknown together. "People from all walks of life have shared how much Bourdain means to them.
For this reason, viewers will feel incredibly bittersweet watching the final season of Bourdain's Parts Unknown . According to the Los Angeles Times , while seasons 10 and 11 had 9 and 8 episodes respectively, season 12 will only have 7 episodes. One episode will feature Bourdain traveling to Nairobi, Kenya, with comedian and United Shades of America host W. Kamau Bell. According to the same Los Angeles Times article, this was the only episode in which Bourdain voiced him before his death.
"Everyone who has dreamed of traveling with Tony knows that it's really cool," Bale said in the Season 12 trailer, later explaining, "Nairobi is super colorful, so there's a lot to see. "It's one of those things about (Bourdain) that shows he's doing a great job in a place where people who don't live in that town wouldn't go." Yet, as always, the chef looks right at home.
According to an op-ed about Bourdain written by Bell for CNN, the two first met at the 2016 Emmy Awards. Bourdain suggested they work together, and the comedian enthusiastically agreed. "Once we got serious about it, we decided the location would be Kenya because although I'm not Kenyan, my name 'Kamau' is Kenyan (Kikuyu to be precise)," he recalls. “Kenyans have told me for years that I need to go to Kenya.”
The same goes for Kenya. A preview clip on the Parts Unknown website shows Bourdain and Bell preparing to eat sheep's head soup. The comedians stared wide-eyed at a real goat's head being chopped up in front of them. "I heard the term 'goat head soup,' and I thought, 'Oh, yeah, it's going to be goat head meat in the soup,'" he confided to Bourdain.
This season, viewers will also travel to Manhattan's Lower East Side, the Big Bend area of Texas, Indonesia and Asturias, Spain, according to the Los Angeles Times . However, Amy Entelis, CNN's executive vice president of talent and content, said in the same article that the episodes were produced by directors and other crew members. “Everyone’s going to have a slightly different feeling based on what they gather on site,” she said. "They're going to have Tony's whole presence because you're going to see him, you're going to hear him, you're going to see him. That layer of his narrative will be gone, but it will be replaced by the other voices of the people around him. ."
What's more, the show will also include two specials: One will feature the cast and crew talking about creating the show, while the final episode will pay tribute to Bourdain and how he impacted the world, the Los Angeles Times reports . So while Parts Unknown 's final season will certainly be heartbreaking, it will also be bittersweet for fans to watch Bourdain take them on one final world tour. As Bell said on Twitter, "While his death will be a very emotional episode, I don't want to forget that we had a really great time and laughed a lot."
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