Stanley Tucci claims that CNN canceled ‘Searching for Italy,’ but he still wants to do a Season 3 of the show

December 16, 2022December 16, 2022 Editor

Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy won an Emmy Award for outstanding hosted nonfiction series shortly after its first season premiered in 2021

Stanley Tucci is looking for… another network.

The actor, 62, acknowledged the cancellation of his hit cuisine and travel show, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday evening.

“Unfortunately, CNN has canceled all of their original programmings,” Tucci told host Jimmy Fallon. “So hopefully we’ll end up on another streamer, network — we don’t know.”

He added: “But yes, I have plans to do season 3 and more.”

In a statement  CNN said, “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy is one of CNN Original Series’ most successful projects, winning two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series. We wish to thank Stanley Tucci for his dream partnership on this series.”

The network added: “We look forward to collaborating on the upcoming Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico, for which he serves as an executive producer. Searching for Mexico will air on CNN in 2023.”

Searching for Italy follows Tucci discovering his Italian heritage, putting the spotlight on the many little-known delights of Italy’s unique gastronomic culture.

The six-episode first season began in February 2021, and received the attention of reviewers and audiences alike, nabbing an Emmy months later for outstanding hosted nonfiction series. Season 2 debuted a year later, on May 1, 2022.

Speaking to PEOPLE in February 2022, Tucci explained that the series found success that he didn’t see coming. “It became this thing that I don’t think any of us really anticipated,” Tucci said at the time.

“I was really flattered that CNN came to me and said, ‘Hey, do you have any ideas?’ And this was an idea I had for a very long time. And then they said, ‘Yeah, okay, we’ll make that,’ ” he added. “It’s a great production company in London, and we started making it, and we made it. But did we expect it to become a big hit? Honestly, no.”

Tucci also discussed how his CNN series pushed people to travel and cook in the midst of the COVID pandemic on his Tonight Show appearance.

“It’s fantastic. The show debuted during the pandemic, and we were under lockdown “He stated. “So we had we had Obviously, right? People were yearning to get out, and they sort of lived vicariously through us.”

Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy is currently available on Discovery+.