South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are just as annoyed about the delayed premiere date for Season 27 as the show’s fans are.
More than two years have passed since the most recent season premiered. South Park was scheduled to return on July 9, but Season 27 will now premiere on Comedy Central on July 25. Parker and Stone have blamed the last-minute delay on complications regarding Paramount Global’s merger with Skydance Media.
“This merger is a shitshow and it’s fucking up ‘South Park,’” Parker and Stone shared in a social media statement responding to news of the delay. “We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow.”
Paramount and Skydance inked an $8 billion deal almost a year ago, but have yet to receive FCC approval. This week, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit with Donald Trump, who sued Paramount and CBS over Kamala Harris’ October 2024 60 Minutes interview. Per Variety, Paramount held that the decision to settle “does not include a statement of apology or regret.” Trump claimed the episode was edited in a manner that attempted to mislead voters.
While the settlement could potentially speed up the FCC approval process, South Park is still stuck in limbo regarding its future streaming home. Last week, Stone and Parker accused Jeff Shell, who will become president of Paramount following the completion of the Skydance merger, of interfering in their entertainment company Park County’s contract negotiations with Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery. “If these activities continue, we will have no choice but to act to both protect our rights and discharge any obligations we may have to the public,” legal representatives wrote in a letter, per The Hollywood Reporter.
“You did this behind Park County’s back,” Afshin Beyzaee, general counsel for the firm, said in an address to Shell. “That self-dealing would have been absolutely restricted if it were done by Paramount itself. So, it is simply outrageous that even before it has been granted the authority to close the merger with Paramount, Redbird and Skydance are jumping the gun and using confidential information of SPDS to purport to make demands on behalf of SPDS that even Paramount has no right to make.”
From Rolling Stone US
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