At the Paramount+ TCAs presentation, it was confirmed that South Park will release two more specials in 2022. Last year, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone inked an enormous $900 million deal with ViacomCBS for six more seasons of South Park on Comedy Central, as well as 14 movies/hour-long specials with exclusive streaming rights on Paramount+. This is one of the biggest deals for the rights to a single show in TV history, which is proof of South Park's enduring popularity and the numbers it can bring to Paramount+.
While South Park hasn't released a new season since 2019, it has had four popular pandemic specials, two of which, South Park: Post Covid and South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid, were the first to be released exclusively on Paramount+. In the streaming wars, a show with an extensive library like South Park is a valuable commodity, and the show moving away from its current streaming home at HBOMax is significant for Paramount+. More exclusive content from hit shows is a boon for the streaming service, which has struggled to get off the ground and reach the heights of Netflix or Disney+.
Paramount+'s announcement at the Television Critics' Association of two new South Park specials for 2022 puts the series on track of releasing two specials per year until 2027 to get the total of 14. The South Park specials release team emphasized the flexibility of the release schedule and story content. They mentioned that the specials won't necessarily be two-part events, and won't necessarily be released at the same time each year. Read their full response below:
Q: will the specials always release at the end of the year?
[South Park specials release]: Not necessarily always at the end of the year and not necessarily two-part events. We're keeping those options, and like we said we’re incredibly flexible in terms of bringing those stories to paramount plus, but there will be two this year.
Parker and Stone clarified in a THR interview that these specials won't be on the same scale of a theatrical release, but still big and unique in comparison to the show. Paramount+ allowing the South Park creators free rein with their specials is an exciting thought, considering how the show frequently pushes boundaries on what is acceptable to show on TV. The show has faced controversy for showing everything from the prophet Muhammad to Tom Cruise's relationship with Scientology. While some of these episodes were banned by Comedy Central, streaming has fewer limits than cable on what can be done on TV. In the same THR interview, Parker and Stone mentioned that after years of the news (and the show) being dominated by Trump and the pandemic, they're looking forward to focusing on different topics and creating less serialized storylines.
With television production shifting back to in-person and a hefty investment in South Park, the show's future has never looked brighter. South Park is known for its tight week-long episode turnaround and topical jokes, which made production during the pandemic difficult. Now that the show is back on a regular schedule, it will be exciting to see what current topics the writers will skewer next.
Source: Paramount+