Fans of Stanley Tucci’s food journey in Italy won’t be seeing him try out the best pasta the country has to offer anytime soon, at least not on CNN. During his recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the actor revealed that his Emmy Award-winning food and travel docuseries, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, has been canned. “Unfortunately, CNN has canceled all of their original programming. So hopefully we’ll end up on another streamer, network—we don’t know,” Tucci told the host. “But yes, I have plans to do season 3 and more.” Fallon joked, “So Searching for Italy is searching for a new network,” he asked, with Tucci responding in jest, “It’s not as appetizing.”
The 14-episode docuseries followed the I Wanna Dance With Somebody star as he ventured across Italy to test out their best cuisine. The show’s goal was to showcase all 20 of Italy’s regions. By the end of the second season, Tucci visited 13 out of the 20 regions within the country.
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The first season premiered in Feb. 2021 and earned an Emmy for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series. The second season earned the same award, premiering in May 2022.
Of the cancellation, CNN released a statement saying the show was “one of the most successful projects produced by CNN Original Series,” adding, “We want to thank Stanley Tucci for his dream partnership on this series.”
Tucci told Fallon the show has a personal impact on his own life, inspiring him to get in the kitchen. “When the show came out, it was during the pandemic, during lockdown, so we had a captive audience, right? And people were desperate to get out, and they sort of lived vicariously through us,” he said.
CNN has undergone several big changes in recent months amid new management. Show cancellations are reportedly part of an effort to save CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, money.
