Three episodes into its first-season run, “Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown” has been renewed for a second season, CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker announced Wednesday.
Since the Sunday series debuted April 14, it has averaged 389,000 viewers between ages 25 and 54, up 440 percent compared to CNN’s programming in that slot one year ago (72,000 viewers).
“In addition to its runaway ratings success, it is also quite the conversation starter, as anyone who follows social media can attest,” In its second season, the network said, “Parts Unknown” will explore the food and culture of Spain, New Mexico, Israel, Copenhagen, Sicily, Detroit, Tokyo and India.
The second season is scheduled to debut Sept. 15.
Knox knocked
If ABC was expecting boffo ratings for Diane Sawyer’s exclusive interview with Amanda Knox, that bonanza did not happen.
“Murder. Mystery. Amanda Knox Speaks — A Diane Sawyer Exclusive” attracted an average of 8.5 million viewers at 10 p.m. Tuesday — about 800,000 viewers ahead of CBS’s original “Golden Boy” episode in the same hour.
It was the first TV interview for the Seattle college student convicted of murdering roommate Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2009. Knox served four years of a 26-year sentence before the conviction was overturned, though her acquittal has since been overturned by the Italian high court.
Sawyer will next conduct the first TV interview with Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old schoolgirl from Pakistan who was shot by the Taliban because she believed that girls should have the right to go to school. That interview won’t run until October.
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