July 1, 2025 was meant to be the day that every episode of South Park (bar any “banned” ones) headed to Paramount Plus for your streaming pleasure, but a new drama has unfolded – so what exactly is going on?
First, the good news: Stan, Kyle, Eric, and Kenny will finally return in new episodes of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s long-running animated show, with South Park Season 27 premiering on Comedy Central on July 9.
That’s a two-year gap between seasons, and there’s more than one reason for the delay. A big part of it was the creators wanted to skip the election, with Parker telling Vanity Fair last year, “I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump.”
Another big part of it involves, as Parker said, “waiting for Paramount to figure all their sh*t out.” It looks like they’re still waiting, as the streaming deal has fallen through.
Why isn’t South Park on Paramount Plus?
The reason South Park hasn’t turned up on Paramount+ is likely due to an ongoing streaming war between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, owner of HBO Max.
For the uninitiated, a previous deal with Warner Bros. Discovery gave it exclusive streaming rights until June 30, 2025. Due to the expiration date, it was widely reported that all seasons of the animated series would head to Paramount’s streaming service.
However, as of July 2, Seasons 1-26 are still on HBO Max. The news has left fans fed up, with one writing on Reddit, “I have been living in a household that refuses to get HBO, so when I found out South Park was gonna be on Paramount Plus, I camped out all night on the app to watch it…
“Is something going on or do I need to update my devices? It was supposedly gonna be on today so I’m pretty confused.”
“Worst part is, not a word from Paramount Plus. This is bullsh*t,” said another. “While I have Max I found certain shows on Paramount I liked (mostly nostalgia) to make me just migrate there. Of course I stayed up all night and now it’s 6:40pm and still no word. F**k Paramount.”
“I bought a year of Paramount Plus because I thought it was going to get South Park on July 1,” added a third, while a fourth commented, “Matt and Trey should just start their own website and put the show out on there.”
What’s going on with South Park’s streaming rights?
To understand the current mess, we need to rewind to 2019, when Warner Bros. Discovery (then WarnerMedia) struck a major licensing deal for South Park.
The deal gave HBO Max exclusive US streaming rights to Seasons 1-23, along with future seasons and new episodes through to Season 26. The idea was that they would arrive on the streamer a day after airing on Comedy Central.
The price tag? A whopping $500 million. However, things started getting messy when Paramount Global – the parent company of South Park’s long-time home, Comedy Central – launched Paramount+.
In 2021, the media company announced a separate $900 million deal with Parker and Stone to create a series of exclusive South Park “movies” for Paramount+ (which, let’s be honest, were basically special episodes).
This raised eyebrows, especially at Warner Bros., which claimed those specials violated its exclusive streaming deal. This led to a legal showdown in 2023, with Warner Bros. Discovery suing Paramount Global, alleging breach of contract.
Paramount countersued, saying Warner wasn’t paying its licensing fees on time. The result is a deeply tangled mess of overlapping contracts, conflicting rights, and mounting frustration from all sides.
What does Skydance have to do with this?
As if that weren’t enough, there’s also a corporate merger looming. In 2024, Skydance Media entered into talks to acquire Paramount Global, but the $8 billion deal remains in limbo as of July 2025.
If completed, it would likely overhaul Paramount’s structure and potentially reshape how its streaming arm operates. You may have guessed it already, but this only adds even more instability to the South Park situation.
So, while Paramount+ was expected to become the show’s exclusive streaming home starting July 1, the ongoing lawsuits and Skydance acquisition are likely why the transition has been paused.
Some fans are concerned this could also delay Season 27. “The merger of Paramount with Skydance has complicated things… So there is a dispute which has caused South Park to currently extend its stay on Max for the time being,” said one Redditor.
They later added, “I’m curious if the new season is going to get delayed from airing until all this sh*t is settled. In other words, I don’t think anyone even knows for sure what’s going to happen with the new season at this point.”
The good news is we were given a Season 27 teaser a couple of months back, and there has been no news about any delays, so July 9 is the premiere date for the time being.
Where do Trey Parker and Matt Stone stand?
The creators are clearly fed up. In June 2025, just weeks before the expected streaming move, Parker and Stone threatened legal action of their own, clearly frustrated by being trapped in the middle of corporate battles.
In a letter seen by THR, their attorney accuses Jeff Shell – who will be the president of Paramount if the Skydance merger gets completed – of interfering with potential streaming suitors including HBO Max and Netflix.
This includes directing the streamers to change certain terms of their offers in a “manner calculated to benefit Paramount at the expense” of the company in question.
“We hereby demand that you, Redbird, and Skydance immediately cease your interference,” the letter states. “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.”
In short, it’s all very much up in the air – we need a little more Tegridy from the corporations to make sure South Park can keep South Parkin’.
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