Stanley Tucci confirms that Searching For Italy is done at CNN and is being shopped to other networks
The Easy A actor says that CNN has wiped its slate of original programming and his food and travel series needs a new home
Another day, another devastating blow to programming under the Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella! Following the news earlier this week that HBO Max will be dropping Minx, Love Life, Westworld, and The Nevers, David Zaslav’s merciless rule has now come for Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy. While the dining and travel series hosted by the Big Night star was airing its second season earlier this fall, a report emerged that CNN would be cutting back on original content, starting with food programming. Now, it’s been confirmed that the show is off the table at the broadcaster that once brought Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown to the world.
“Unfortunately, CNN has canceled all of their original programming, so hopefully we’ll end up on another streamer, network, we don’t know,” Tucci says on an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. “But yes, I have plans to do season three and more.”
Part of Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy’s mission statement was to highlight each of Italy’s 20 regions. So far, Tucci and company have only visited 13, as well as producing an episode about the history of Italian food in the actor and cookbook author’s current home base of London.
Considering how much audiences love to watch the Julie & Julia actor stroll around the Italian countryside sampling different kinds of pasta, hopefully, it won’t be too difficult for the show to find a new home. (Is this how Peacock gets new subscribers?)
This setback aside, Tucci is closing out the year strong. Besides releasing the second season of Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy, he co-starred in the Netflix crime drama Inside Man and will be seen in Whitney Houston: I Want To Dance With Somebody later this month.
Correction: This story previously stated that the fate of the companion series Eva Longoria: Searching For Mexico was unknown. As reported by Variety, that show was originally intended for CNN+, but will now be airing on CNN next year.