Anthony Bourdain will be a guest on Piers Morgan’s CNN program tonight, his first appearance on the network since the news about his new CNN show, which now has a name: “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.”
Bourdain’s Travel Channel exit has not been without drama. Last week, during the series finale of “No Reservations,” he took to Twitter to trash the network for using his name and image in a Cadillac promotional spot without his knowledge. Bourdain expanded on his frustration in a blog post headlined “Fighting Mad” yesterday:
If I make an agreement—especially about something as personal as the use of my name and image, I expect that agreement will be honored. So it came as a shock and a disappointment to turn on the TV for the last two episodes of my show, and see that someone had taken footage that me and my creative team had shot for my show, cut it up and edited it together with scenes of a new Cadillac driving through the forest. Scenes of me, my face, and with my voice, were edited in such a way as to suggest that I might be driving that Cadillac. That, at least, I was very likely IN that Cadillac—and that if nothing else, I sure as shit was endorsing Cadillac as the vehicle of choice for my show. All this following seamlessly from the actual show so you were halfway through the damn thing before you even realized it was a commercial.
AdvertisementAll of us on the show would have preferred to go out on a high note—and we tried to do that as best we could, turning in a strong, final season that we are very proud of. We wanted to go leaving a lot of great shows—and nothing but good memories and good will behind. But things just didn’t turn out that way.
Bourdain’s food and travel weekend program is slated to debut on CNN in the spring.