South Park Season 27 premiere delayed to July 23 amid streaming rights battle; creators blast Paramount-Skydance merger for disrupting the show.
The long-awaited 27th season of South Park has been delayed by two weeks, moving its Comedy Central premiere date from July 9 to July 23.
The delay comes amid growing tensions over the show’s streaming rights and the ongoing corporate shake-up involving Paramount Global and Skydance.
Series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone did not hold back their frustration over the delay, blaming the Paramount-Skydance merger in a blunt statement posted to X (formerly Twitter).
“This merger is a sh*tshow and it’s f*cking with up South Park,” they wrote. “We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow.”
The disruption is closely tied to the expiration of South Park’s exclusive $500 million streaming deal with HBO Max, which ended just a week ago.
A new licensing deal has not yet been finalized, creating uncertainty over where the new episodes will stream. Paramount Global has publicly stated its intent to bring South Park to its own platform, Paramount+, starting in July.
However, negotiations remain unresolved, and the show did not launch on Paramount+ on July 1 as anticipated.
In the meantime, Warner Bros. Discovery (owner of HBO Max) and Netflix have reportedly made bids for non-exclusive streaming rights.
Legal tensions escalated when Parker and Stone’s legal team sent a letter to RedBird, Skydance, and executive Jeff Shell—set to become President of Paramount Global—accusing them of interfering in the ongoing deal talks.
The letter claimed there were efforts to impose a shortened licensing term and delay access to new episodes by a year for non-Paramount+ platforms.
Despite the corporate chaos, South Park fans can still stream all 26 existing episodes on Max, as part of a temporary extension during negotiations.
Paramount+ continues to host several exclusive South Park specials, which were previously the subject of a lawsuit by Warner Bros. Discovery.
Executive producers for the new season include Parker, Stone, Anne Garefino, and Frank C. Agnone II, with Christopher Brion serving as Creative Director of South Park Digital Studios.
A new teaser trailer for Season 27 was released with the original premiere announcement.
