For years now, Paramount+ has been so desperate for South Park streaming content that there’s a literal lawsuit over it, as executives (presumably regretful that they shopped the series’ streaming rights out to Warner Bros. Discovery’s once-and-future HBO Max several years back for an absolutely staggering amount of cash) have done everything they can to get as much online Cartman for themselves as they can. Now, though, the terms of that deal—which gave WBD “exclusive” streaming rights to South Park through June 30, 2025, albeit with what turned out to be a ton of loopholes—are finally set to expire, meaning that the whole series can now go to its parent company’s personal streaming oasis, where it’ll arrive on July 1.
And, wouldn’t you know it: There’s a brand new season of South Park rolling out just 10 days after the deal ends, after taking the entirety of last year off. (We’re genuinely curious how many episodes the show’s 27th season will be, by the way, since one of the many complaints in the ongoing Warner Bros. lawsuit is that Paramount switched to six-episode seasons when it was on the hook to serve new episodes up to Max, after years of doing 10-episode seasons before that.) South Park Studios rolled out a teaser for the new season last month, assuring viewers that all the things they’re worried about in the real world—airplane crashes, conflict with Canada, Diddy—will be present in the series, too.
Honestly, we’re mostly just fascinated by how much more angry all of this is going to make Warner Bros., which is currently seeking something like $200 million from Paramount for its various alleged shenanigans to maintain online control of the series, after accepting more than half a billion dollars to loan it out to their rival for a six-year term. Amazingly, Deadline reports that it’s possible the series will continue to also be streamed on Max, since Paramount wants to avoid allegations of self-dealing by keeping the series solely for itself—but if there’s one thing that following this story has taught us over the last six years, it’s that there’s still an enormous amount of money wrapped up in South Park, and the studios will do all sorts of shady-seeming stuff to keep the series in their grasp.
