“South Park” may be back this Wednesday, but it’s not returning for Season 27. The upcoming “Twisted Christian” will mark the premiere of Season 28, an insider familiar with the matter told TheWrap. “Twisted Christian” is even listed as the first episode of Season 28 on Comedy Central’s official schedule.
So what’s going on? The short answer is we don’t really know. But “South Park” fans shouldn’t be worried. Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s darling has a history of playing fast and loose with its episode structure and count.
Here’s what to know about the “South Park” Season 28 premiere.
Is “South Park” Season 28 premiering tonight?
It is, yes. “Twisted Christian” is officially the first episode of Season 28, meaning that Season 27 was only five episodes long. Season 28 will also be five episodes long, an insider told TheWrap.
It’s an odd changeup, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that anything is wrong. An insider assured TheWrap that 10 new episodes in total will be released this year as expected. Remaining episodes are expected to air Oct, 29, Nov. 12, Nov. 26 and Dec. 10.
Why is “South Park” starting Season 28 now?
That’s a far more difficult question to answer. The episode count for “South Park” has historically been all over the map. From its premiere in 1997 to 2012, seasons ranged from 13 to 18 episodes. But from 2013 to 2017, that evened out, and the show fell into a rhythm of releasing 10 episodes a season.
That changed in 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the series only released one episode that year. The following year saw one episode of “South Park” proper as well as two Paramount+ specials. Seasons 25 and 26 each had six episodes in the main series with Paramount+ releasing two specials in 2022 and three in 2023.
If these fluctuating episode counts are giving you a headache, Warner Bros. Discovery feels your pain. The inconsistent new episode counts were a major factor in WBD’s lawsuit against Paramount over the streaming rights to “South Park.”
There’s also reason to believe that Paramount knew these seasons would be shorter than average. At the very least, the company is prepared for “South Park” to have fluctuating episode counts. Earlier this year the company extended Parker and Stone’s overall deal for five years and 50 episodes — wording that seems especially important now.
So once again, why is this happening? It could be a contract-related reason unknown by the general public. It could also be a plot-related reason.
“South Park” isn’t a stranger to messing with its audience through its very format. Its 300th episode “Shots!!!”, released in 2019, revolved around Randy trying to force people to celebrate a major Tegridy Farms milestone despite how depressing and horrifying the world was. Then there was Season 25’s “The Big Fix,” an episode that claimed Tolkien — a Black student at South Park Elementary — was always named Tolkien and not Token. Comedy Central even changed Tolkien’s name in all digital references to the character. “South Park” even started serializing its season-long storylines from Season 18 on.
This is all to say that “South Park” plays by its own rules. And it’s probably not a coincidence that this change is happening after a major corporate merger (Skydance acquiring Paramount) as well as a huge plot point (Randy selling Tegridy Farms and the Marshes moving back to South Park).
Or we could be overthinking everything and it’s just a silly joke. The trailer for tonight’s episode shows the kids laughing at each other as they yell “six seven, six seven,” a meme that’s popular among Gen Alpha.
Is there a trailer for “South Park” Season 28, Episode 1?
There sure is, and it’s a lot. “Cartman is possessed and may be the key to stopping the Antichrist,” a description for the episode reads.
