The HBO Max and “South Park” streaming partnership is coming to an end. The animated series from Matt Stone and Trey Parker will exit the WBD platform on Aug. 5, marking the end of a five-year run as the show’s U.S. streaming home.
The exit comes after the show’s production company Park County and Paramount inked a new deal, reportedly worth $1.5 billion for its parent company to become the sole streaming home of “South Park” across the globe. A note in the show’s HBO Max homepage notified viewers of its looming exit.
Park County and Paramount’s deal includes 50 new episodes of the hit series over five years, along with global streaming rights to its previous 26 seasons. The show previously had a dual streaming partnerships that offered Paramount+ streaming rights internationally, while HBO Max carried the show in the U.S.
Getting to this deal came with its own set of drama, however. Negotiations previously stalled between Stone, Parker and Paramount, as soon-to-be new owners Skydance reportedly interfered in locking a proposed 10-year deal for the show. The show’s creators publicly clashed over the negotiations, claiming incoming Paramount entertainment president Jeff Shell for inserting himself in negotiations before the Skydance-Paramount merger had been approved by the FCC.
In the end, the parties came to terms on the lucrative five-year deal, and the media company’s merger is expected to close Aug. 7.
In “South Park” world, the deal also led to the return of the show with a new episode on July 23, which quickly went viral with its wild takedown of both Paramount Global and President Donald Trump, whose settlement with the company over a “60 Minutes” lawsuit was halting the merger’s regulatory process. The episode was a ratings hit across Paramount+ and Comedy Central, scoring nearly 6 million viewers in three days — and that’s not counting all the views for the full episode, as well as clips, that circulated on social media.
“South Park” returns with a new episode Wednesday, Aug. 6, on Comedy Central and streams the next day on Paramount+.
