The classic phrase about unexpected snags references the best-laid plans of mice and men ofttimes going astray. Now, you can add a couple of perpetual adolescents to that list of the afflicted.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, not to mention their tightly knit team of comic geniuses, have been diligently working against self-imposed uber-tight deadlines on the latest batch of original SOUTH PARK episodes for Comedy Central, just as they have been for the better part of the last three decades. Their unique production process which incorporates stylized 2D animation allows for voiceover to be as topical as, say, THE DAILY SHOW, and often way funnier. And considering they last produced originals during the Biden administration, they’ve got an awful lot of subject matter at their disposal that their cheeky grade school kids–not to mention the highly dysfunctional yet recognizable adults around them– in suburban Denver can utilize to skewer pop culture and the world in general.
And tonight was supposed to be the debut of Season XXVII, in the same week that THE DAILY SHOW returned after its own far briefer hiatus and supplied a highly charged episode where Jon Stewart was especially critical of the hand that feeds him, utilizing 60 MINUTES’ Steve Croft to amplify his strong feelings about how damaging and needless Paramount’s decision to choose corporate greed over objective and responsible reporting and consent to what they saw as a “shakedown’ from our Mafioso-In-Chief to make real headlines that will likely extend its usually substantial delayed viewing window audience to even greater levels–a heck of a promo boost in what had been designed as a good old fashioned summer cable premiere week. Ya know, back when the show began a lot of cable networks did that, and in the case of the Viacom conglomerate that Comedy Central was a tentacle of it smartly constructed weeks like that made the Redstone family an awful lot of money.
But that was then and this is now. And you can forget about those originals for now, and you might need a road map to figure out where the prior 26 seasons and 323 episodes wind up. BLOOMBERG’s Lucas Shaw–employed at least for the moment– dourfully reported on this “snag” last week:
Comedy Central has delayed the upcoming debut of the new season of South Park, prompting a vitriolic response from the show’s creators.
In a statement Wednesday, Trey Parker and Matt Stone blamed the delay on complications from the pending merger of Comedy Central’s parent company Paramount Global with independent TV and film producer Skydance Media — a deal that has gotten bogged down amid regulatory scrutiny in Washington. “This merger is a s—-show and it’s f——ing up South Park,” the creators wrote. “We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow.”
The show has been mired in friction lately over the future of its streaming rights. HBO Max’s exclusive streaming rights for South Park ended recently, and no new deal has been reached. Last month, Parker and Stone accused Skydance of interfering in negotiations over the future of the rights, which could net them billions of dollars, and threatened legal action.
And that’s where the laughing stops. Fact is, Parker and Stone were both savvy and successful enough to carve out their own control of series distribution early on, controlling SOUTH PARK’s fate via a holding company where the concept of corporate synergy was secondary to yet another good old fashioned concept–rights going to the highest bidder. That’s how the show wound up being syndicated to local stations by the opportunistic mavericks at Debmar-Mercury at a time when almost nothing “off-cable” was being sold, creating a revenue stream and filling a programming void in late night, all while CC liberally used their linear network rights to run their episodes literally hundreds of times. And it also explains how a show that became a hit for one vertically integrated media company wound up in the initial portfolio of the streaming platform for a direct competitor.
Incidentally, this was consistent with how Paramount Global itself was making decisions on its other–and scant few–hit cable series at that time. Do recall that YELLOWSTONE, despite being a breakthrough series for CC’s much-maligned general entertainment stablemate now called The Paramount Network that was called The Nashville Network and went through two other name changes since SOUTH PARK was born, wound up with its reruns on Peacock versus Johnny-come-lately Paramount Plus. That’s confused the hell out of a majority of cord-cutters and cord-nevers and has constantly been cited as a major reason Paramount Plus has struggled since its inception and Peacock has stuck it out despite an even less successful list of actual hits of its own since Taylor Sheridan has evolved into a prolific and cooperative company man.
And ya know who was savvy and opportunistic enough to take advantage of Paramount’s arguably short-sighted deal-making at Peacock? None other than one-time NBC chairman Jeff Shell. The same extremely smart executive that has emerged from his self-imposed sabbatical after he simply couldn’t avoid the temptation of a Hong Kong-based temptress only to emerge as the backroom brain consulting Larry and David Ellison and will ultimately be spearheading Paramount Global’s future once those inconvenient details about said sh-tshow are finally worked out and Team Skydance can finally take over. Depending upon what you want or whom you’re open to believing–the $16 million “extortion” figure being cited by Paramount and Skydance or the $35 million that includes “promotional considerations” that a certain obese Leader has been chortling about, that ball is finally in the proverbial Red(stone) Zone.
But it’s not fully done, and the fact that Shell appears hell-bent on not being a victim of the very strategy he employed as he takes the reins of a challenged company that he’s made crystal clear will prioritize–and likely eventually separate out–Paramount Plus is apparently very much why Eric Cartman is even more pissed off and Tourette’s-afflicted than usual.
As THE DENVER POST’s Tinet Ricciardi explained before the holiday:
As part of the Paramount-Skydance merger, the two media companies are working to negotiate terms for the future of “South Park,” according to The Los Angeles Times. The show reportedly has two years left on its deal with Paramount, so new episodes will air on Comedy Central for that time. Paramount+ is supposed to be the exclusive streaming hub for the entire “South Park” catalog as of this year, with new episodes debuting on that platform first. However, “Paramount hasn’t nailed down the streaming rights” due to factors related to the merger, The LA Times reported on June 13, citing three sources familiar with the negotiations. For several years, few episodes of “South Park” have been available to stream on HBO Max through a licensing deal, but that expired in June, the publication stated.
Shell knows quite well–and fortunately knows who to ask and where to look for updates–how and why THE DAILY SHOW is still able to achieve enough of a sellable audience size in an era of fragmentation–because each new episode is a priority promotional tile that’s featured on Paramount Plus. Rights that Viacom braintrust fought diligently and dispassionately to claw back from the wild world of YouTube when the Redstones got sick of seeing their best stuff out there on the Internet without them getting every last nickel they thought they were due. And if you think he’s gonna let Paramount Plus get suckered again out of all of that upside, you sure don’t him know as well as I do.
So tonight if you’re looking for original stuff to watch, you’ll have to settle for a new episode of MASTERCHEF on FOX or SULLIVAN’S CROSSING on the CW. Maybe that long-anticipated second half to the crossover between ABBOTT ELEMENTARY and IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA. Or if you’re in Louisville, Kentucky, per TV GUIDE.com, you can add THE 700 CLUB and ANDREW WOMMACK’S GOSPEL TRUTH to your consideration set. Anything to avoid CNN or FOX NEWS, especially when so much of their content is focused on someone who’s arguably even more immature and underinformed–let alone Cheesy Poof-appreciative–than Eric Cartman.
For now, SOUTH PARK (as well as Andy Samberg’s promising yet anything-but-renewed DIGMAN! companion piece) are slated to start two weeks from now, assuming the backroom bantering calms down enough to work something out. One can only hope that that cross-promotional opportunity with THE DAILY SHOW will still exist and that Stewart will still be employed at that point. We’ll deal with tonight’s void, just like our friends down at SOUTH PARK have done with all the ones in their lives.
But this time, don’t blame Canada. Blame America.
Until next time…