CNN needed a star to boost the launch of its streaming service, and it found one: Anthony Bourdain. The late, great chef isn’t cooking up new content, of course, but the network did find some leftovers in its archives to reheat for paying customers. Anyone who subscribes to the streamer’s All Access tier (which opened for business today) will be served a heaping portion of Prime Cuts, a vintage Bourdain program that has never before been included in a streaming library, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Prime Cuts served as an appetizer of sorts for Bourdain’s flagship show, Parts Unknown. Hour-long episodes of Prime Cuts would air on CNN ahead of each new Parts Unknown season, combining clips from episodes to come with exclusive interviews with Bourdain and behind-the-scenes looks at some of the people, places, and cuisines he explored. “These reflective, candid conversations reveal behind the scenes insights and Tony at his best—deeply honest about his travels, his work, and what the journey meant to him,” the network shared in a statement.
These episodes only ran once on regular linear TV before retreating back to the shadows of CNN’s archives. That means the launch of the new streamer marks the first time that CNN’s entire Bourdain collection—including all episodes of Parts Unknown, Prime Cuts, and the 2021 film Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain—will be available on-demand.
Bourdain was a major pull for CNN when the network managed to poach him from the Travel Channel (which aired his other hit series Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations) in 2012. THR writes that Parts Unknown “effectively kickstarted CNN’s original series push,” making digging up more Bourdain content a natural choice to kick off the new platform. Maybe Prime Cuts will help keep this one in business for a bit longer than CNN’s last attempt at a streaming service.
