Earlier this year, when the news broke that celebrity chef, author and host of the travel show Parts Unknown Anthony Bourdain had taken his own life, fans around the world expressed shock and grief over the loss.

Bourdain and the crew were in the midst of shooting their latest season of Parts Unknown when he died in the northeastern French town of Kaysersberg. He was 61 years old.

This Sunday, the hit show returns for its final season, and CNN has just released a teaser from the first episode featuring comedian and United Shades of America host W. Kamau Bell, who travelled with Bourdain to Kenya.

"Tony has made some of the best television in the history of television — the most compelling, the smartest. I really felt like a passenger and just wanted to be present for it, and I didn't want to suck," says Bell in the clip with a laugh. "Everybody who had dreams of traveling with Tony, it's exactly as cool as you think it is."

In the teaser, you can see Bourdain and Bell dining with locals, watching giraffes at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and walking through the bustling streets of Nairobi. It's Bell's first trip to the African continent, and to a place that holds a personal connection for him.

"There's a mischievous curiosity tucked away in some poisonous part of my brain that's dying to see how Kamau handles the heat, the spice, the crowds, the overwhelming rush of a whole new world," says Bourdain in the episode's voiceover.

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Bell goes on to say that few would visit the places they did, which is what made the show exceptional. In the clip, Bourdain also talks about how, when the cameras are off and the crew is just sitting around, he wants to pinch himself because he feels so lucky to do what he does.

"He wasn't making TV for TV's sake. He wasn't just doing a job. This was his life's work," says Bell. "The fact that Tony is gone is like a punch in the gut. ... I feel a tremendous responsibility to learn the lessons that I learned when I was with him, to deepen the work that I'm doing, and to prove him right to want me to be on an episode of Parts Unknown."

Last week, the program also won two Emmys, one for outstanding informational series or special, and the other for outstanding writing of a non-fiction program, for an episode set in southern Italy that aired last November.

The final season launches this Sunday, September 23, on CNN.