Comedy Central has introduced that season 27 of “South Park” is getting delayed two weeks and is now going to be launched on July 23, 2025. It isn’t that lengthy of a delay, contemplating viewers have not gotten a single new episode of “South Park” since 2023 (not counting the only “particular” episode that dropped in 2024). Nonetheless, the delay is dangerous information, if not as dangerous as Kenny dying an absurd variety of occasions. Now, nevertheless, the scenario has gotten dicey, with the official “South Park” social media account having shared a, nicely, very “South Park” assertion from creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
“This merger is a s*** present and it is f***ing up ‘South Park.’ We’re on the studio engaged on new episodes and we hope the followers get to see them someway,'” the assertion reads.
Particularly, Parker and Stone’s assertion is referencing the proposed merger between Comedy Central’s father or mother firm Paramount World and Skydance Media, which was inked final 12 months however has but to completely shut. Now, Parker and Stone’s response completely guidelines. It is a very “South Park” response, a bridge-burning, no-nonsense, filter-off remark we not often see from creators. (For a really tonally totally different shot at executives, watch the response from the creators of “The Tiny Chef Present” to their sequence getting canceled.)
However there may be much more right here than simply Parker and Stone being mad at Comedy Central, as a result of this assertion is however the newest chapter in a protracted combat between the duo and Paramount. Let’s return to the very starting. It began again in 2007 with the institution of South Park Digital Studios, a partnership between Paramount (which owns Comedy Central) and Parker and Stone. The plan was for the studio to deal with the streaming rights to the present (a brand new idea on the time), with neither of the involved events totally in management.
Why Parker and Stone are mad at Paramount
By 2019, nevertheless, issues had drastically modified within the trade. Streaming was not only a factor, it was dominating Hollywood, and each studio wished a bit of that enormous money pie. Since Paramount had no streaming platform on the time, it noticed a chance to make some huge cash and offered the “South Park” streaming rights to HBO Max, making each episode of the present accessible to stream on that platform (together with new episodes). Besides, by 2021, Paramount had launched its personal streamer with Paramount+, and that very same 12 months, the studio struck a cope with South Park Studios for a further six seasons of the present, in addition to streaming-exclusive “particular episodes” meant for Paramount+.
Sure, Parker and Stone had been technically double-dipping by producing “unique” new “South Park” tasks for each HBO Max and Paramount+. That is basically what their entire “Streaming Wars” particular was about, and that particular is spectacular. Nonetheless, HBO Max was not joyful about what it noticed as a breach of contract and sued Paramount for streaming what the corporate noticed as new episodes by itself platform.
However that HBO Max streaming deal was set to run out now, in 2025, that means “South Park” would solely be streaming on Paramount+ after that. If solely it had been that simple. As a substitute, that streaming deal has neither been renewed nor changed with another, and Parker and Stone’s South Park Studios has been buying the rights to different firms. Besides, in response to paperwork revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, Parker and Stone are actually additionally threatening to sue Paramount for allegedly interfering with a brand new deal for the present’s streaming rights.
Particularly, Parker and Stone are accusing Jeff Shell, who is about to grow to be president of Paramount World after the pending merger of the studio with Skydance, over trying to prioritize Paramount+ and shorten phrases with different studios in a brand new streaming settlement.
Briefly, Parker and Stone are expressing their anger over what they see as company shenanigans drastically altering the way in which they make “South Park” (the latest seasons have been shorter since they’re additionally making “specials”), when the present’s episodes are launched, and who may even stream them.