Paramount, “South Park” creators strike new streaming mega-deal

Comedy Central’s signature show moves to Paramount Plus domestically

After a contentious back-and-forth with a lot of insults thrown, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and their South Park Digital Studios agreed to a new five-year, fifteen billion dollar deal with Paramount Global, bringing the entire library exclusively to Paramount Plus.

Paramount Plus will offer next-day new episodes on Thursdays, after their Wednesday night airings on Comedy Central, their longtime cable home since August 1997, as Paramount will have exclusive global rights to South Park for the first time. Previously, HBO Max held the domestic streaming rights to the show, and its acquisition has been at the center of a lawsuit between parent Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global, over several South Park “specials” that were streamed over Paramount Plus, such as Streaming Wars and The South Park Vaccination Special. HBO Max’s domestic rights deal expired June 30.

The deal is separate from Comedy Central’s, whose contract for South Park runs through 2027.

This comes as the season premiere of South Park debuts Wednesday night, and Parker and Stone headline a South Park panel at San Diego Comic-Con Thursday in Hall H, the largest room in the San Diego Convention Center.

Negotiations with Paramount were challenging as Parker and Stone alleged that Skydance was interfering. This interference occurred even though the deal had not yet been finalized, as the company was still waiting for FCC approval. South Park Digital Studios and Parker and Stone’s holding company Park County threatened legal action against Skydance and incoming CEO Jeff Shell, claiming there were outside offers for more than the five-year pact Skydance was offering. Paramount Plus’ global streaming rights deal (except in the U.S.) with South Park Digital Studios was yanked off the platform earlier this month.

“This merger is a s***show and is f***ing up South Park. We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow”, said Parker and Stone through their South Park X account on July 2 when Comedy Central announced it was delaying the season premiere of the show for two weeks, pushing it to July 23. Aside from those Paramount Plus “specials”, South Park last aired new episodes in March 2023 for an abbreviated six-episode season.

There was also concern from Skydance over how South Park would skewer President Trump, given Paramount recently settled a lawsuit with him for $16 million over how 60 Minutes allegedly edited an interview with Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in last year’s election.

The South Park deal comes after CBS announced last Thursday it was canceling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and ending the Late Show franchise after 32 years, sparking backlash. It is unclear whether South Park will continue to satirize Trump, as the show did not address last year’s elections. The five-year South Park renewal is another victory for adult animation as in March, Disney and Fox agreed to a four-year renewal deal for its stable of long-running Animation Domination comedies, with first-run episodes continuing on Fox and streaming the next day on Hulu.