Anthony Bourdain Has Absolutely No Interest in ‘Saving’ CNN

‘I think if you start thinking about your ratings, or what people want or expect, that’s the road to madness’

Anthony Bourdain Has Absolutely No Interest in ‘Saving’ CNN (Mediaite)

As Jeff Zucker continues to move CNN towards “more shows, less newscasts,” Anthony Bourdain has become the unlikely news face of the network. Last week, CNN started airing reruns of his travel show Parts Unknown in the 9 p.m. time slot formerly occupied by Piers Morgan and for at least one night it was the highest-rated program in the demo on CNN.

So when Bourdain appeared on Fusion’s America Tuesday night, host Jorge Ramos asked him point blank: “Can you save CNN?”

Laughing, Bourdain replied, “I never think about what my role is at the network, what my ratings are, what the audience might want, what’s expected of me.” Instead, he said he just tries to make the “best, weirdest, most fun, most honest television” he can.

“I think if you start thinking about your ratings, or what people want or expect, that’s the road to madness,” he added. “People who think about that stuff to much start talking about themselves in the third person and demanding novelty coffees.” In other words, not him.

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