CNN Renews ‘Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown’ for Third Season with 8 Episodes

On the heels of two Primetime Emmy Awards, CNN’s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown has been renewed for a third season, it was announced Monday.

The documentary series, which has Anthony Bourdain traveling the world on a mission to discover regional flavors, with a dash of geopolitical insight, is currently in its second season on CNN. The eight-episode third season will bow in the spring of 2014.

“We had high expectations for this series when it launched back in April,” CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker said in a statement. “Yet [Bourdain and Zero Point Zero Productions] keep raising the bar — first with the spectacular series premiere in Myanmar, later in the season with the groundbreaking Libya episode and then at the start of season two with a sensitive and incredibly informative tour of Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank.”

Parts Unknown gave CNN its first Primetime Emmys when the show won for outstanding informational series and outstanding cinematography for a nonfiction series at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sept. 15.

The second season premiere of Parts Unknown on Sept. 15 pulled in 240,000 viewers among the 25-54 demographic upon which most news programming is sold. That was off 14 percent compared to the first season premiere, but still enough to be the top-rated program on cable across all key demos for the day.