Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy has been a hit since its debut in 2021. Unfortunately after two seasons, the series has been cancelled by CNN due to budget cuts.
Will there be a season 3 of the Stanley Tucci travel show? While it wont be airing on CNN, the host sounds optimistic about the future of his program.
Searching for Italy
The CNN original series visited six regions of Italy in its first season, and seven in season two – with an extra episode dedicated to London, an area Tucci addresses because of “how Italian immigration transformed the food scene.”
The season two description from the website explains the deeply personal ties Tucci has to the series. Several regions visited are close to the actors heart because of family history:
There’s nowhere on earth like Italy. And there’s no food on earth like Italian food. Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® Award-winning actor Stanley Tucci indulges his passion for Italian cooking as he explores the stories and people behind the world’s most popular cuisine in the second season of the critically acclaimed Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. Tucci, who is Italian on both sides, brings us on his journey to the bustling food markets and hidden trattorias of the Italian peninsula. Across four visually stunning episodes, CNN audiences have a front row seat to experience the rich pesto alla Genovese in Liguria, the airy focaccia Barese in Puglia, and sharp pecorino shepherd’s cheese in Sardinia. In this deeply personal, witty, and warm odyssey of gastronomic delights, Tucci makes a special visit to Calabria, the region where his grandparents were born, to learn what has changed since he last visited as a twelve-year-old boy.
Similar to the late Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, the program follows a good looking culinary expert as he discovers unique tastes around the world.
It’s technically a “reality” series so I’m allowed to ask – is anyone else thirsting for Stanley Tucci on this Italy show?? Dio mio! #searchingforitaly pic.twitter.com/W3goK5MSPO
— Reality By Ashley (@RealityByAshley) March 15, 2021
CNN original programming cuts
Unfortunately for fans of Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy and other similar series, they have been cut from the budget.
In a statement by CNN CEO Chris Licht, the network made the hard decision to cut all programming with outside production costs. A decision, “based, in large part, on the ever-increasing cost of commissioning third-party premium content.”
Searching for Mexico
While Stanley Tucci’s series hit the chopping block, the network is required to air its slate prepared for 2023. Included in this is a ‘sister series’ with Tucci acting as executive producer.
The Eva Longoria hosted Searching for Mexico will follow the actress as she discovers different areas of her native country, experiencing everything from “tequila to mole sauce.”
Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico will debut in 2023
A spokesperson for CNN summed it up:
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy is one of the most successful projects produced by CNN Original Series, garnering two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for outstanding hosted nonfiction program. We want to thank the Stanley Tucci for his dream partnership. We look forward to collaborating on the upcoming Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico, for which he serves as an executive producer.”
The future of Italy
Because Stanley Tucci is an executive producer on his series as well, he can be in talks with other networks to shop Searching for Italy around. This is a move it sounds like he may be ready to make.
Telling Jimmy Fallon in December 2022:
Unfortunately, CNN has canceled all of their original programming, so hopefully we’ll end up on another streamer, network, we don’t know. But yes, I have plans to do season three and more.
While the fate of season three remains unknown, you can catch up on the first two seasons of Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy on Discovery+ and CNN.
Ashley Marie is a writer for Starcasm and the personality behind Twitter’s @RealityByAshley. You can contact Ashley via Twitter or email at realitybyashley(at)gmail.com
