South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have signed a huge deal with ViacomCBS that will keep the show on the air until at least 2027, and see 14 made-for-streaming movies head to Paramount+.
Deadline reports that the development means the show is likely to reach a total of 30 seasons on Comedy Central, while the first two of the 14 original movies are scheduled to arrive later this year on Paramount+. The plan is to release two movies to the streaming platform a year, while new seasons of the show will air first on Comedy Central. While an official figure for the deal hasn’t been revealed, Bloomberg reports that it’s worth $900 million.
“Comedy Central has been our home for 25 years and we’re really happy that they’ve made a commitment to us for the next 75 years,” said Parker and Stone. “When we came to ViacomCBS with a different way to produce the show during the pandemic, Chris (McCarthy), Nina (Diaz), Keyes (Hill-Edgar) and Tanya (Giles) were immediately supportive and enabled us to try something new that turned out to be really well received. We can’t wait to get back to doing traditional South Park episodes but now we can also try out new formats. It’s great to have partners who will always take a chance with us.”
In 2019, HBO Max signed an exclusive streaming rights deal for South Park at $500 million. ViacomCBS, however, retains rights in that deal.
“Matt and Trey are world-class creatives who brilliantly use their outrageous humor to skewer the absurdities of our culture and we are excited to expand and deepen our long relationship with them to help fuel Paramount+ and Comedy Central,” said Chris McCarthy, head of adult animation at Paramount+. “Franchising marquee content like South Park and developing new IP with tremendous talent like Matt and Trey, is at the heart of our strategy to continue growing Paramount+.”
