The much-hyped 27th-season premiere of South Park brought in a big audience for Comedy Central and Paramount+.
In the three days after its July 23 premiere, the episode — which among other things depicted President Donald Trump in bed with Satan — gathered 5.9 million cross-platform viewers, including on-air replays.
The season premiere was pushed back two weeks from its original date as South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone worked out a massive new deal with Paramount Global that includes the show’s library moving from HBO Max to Paramount+ and next-day streaming of new episodes on Paramount+. The latter aspect of the deal helped fuel the big tune-in; on Comedy Central, South Park drew 430,000 viewers for its initial airing, less than 10 percent of the three-day total. The season 26 premiere had 484,000 viewers for its first airing; cross-platform comparisons aren’t really applicable since the show didn’t have a next-day streaming deal at Paramount+ at the time.
The premiere, titled “Sermon on the ‘Mount,” also finds Trump threatening to sue the town of South Park for $5 billion, then settling for $3.5 million and a promise to produce “pro-Trump messaging” — a live-action deepfake at the end of the episode — in an echo of CBS’ 60 Minutes settlement with the president and, at least according to Trump, a side agreement that the network will air public service announcements in line with the administration.
Following the premiere, South Park is taking a week off — a repeat of “Sermon on the ‘Mount” is set to air Wednesday night — before resuming new episodes Aug. 6.
