Trips across Italy with Stanley Tucci in the popular docuseries Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy are potentially at risk of coming to an end. The fate of the travel/food show, which is currently in its second season airing in the US and the UK, could be up in the air because of apparent plans by CNN to pull back on its production of original TV shows and movies with outside partners, according to a report by Variety.
Variety has shared details of a memo to employees shared by Chris Licht, chairman and CEO of CNN, that says, "Our long-term plan will no longer rely on commissioned projects with outside partners," with the cost of third-party series being the primary reason. "However, I want to be clear that longform content remains an important pillar of our programming," Licht adds.
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy is one such project, produced by the production company RAW and distributed by CNN.
The memo goes on to detail that CNN plans to air six original series and six CNN films in 2023, but no information on what the shows are was shared. What to Watch reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery for comment, with them saying, "We will have information in the coming weeks about our final 2023 CNN Original Series & CNN Films slate."
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy follows the popular actor as he explores different Italian regions to learn more about the food, the culture and the people that make them all unique. Across two seasons he has visited Rome, Venice, Tuscany, Umbria, the Italian food culture in London and more. All in all, he has explored 13 Italian regions; there are 20 in the entire country of Italy. However, if you've seen the final episode of season 2, it certainly ends in a way that could be seen as a series finale.
Another CNN show that could be impacted by this decision is W. Kamau Bell’s United Shades of America, which has run for seven seasons. To be clear, Variety’s report does not say that either United Shades of America or Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy is canceled.
Warner Bros. Discovery has been reshuffling its programming slate since its merger, which has led to some big decisions like ditching the HBO Max original movie Batgirl, removing other HBO Max original movies from the streaming service and ending most original programming on TBS and TNT (including a last minute cancellation of the sitcom Chad).
While we wait to hear if more is on the way, there are still new episodes to watch of Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy season 2.
