HBO Max’s Most Popular Show Isn’t Even an Original Series

The most-watched show on HBO Max is apparently Comedy Central’s South Park, a series that not only is not an HBO original, but doesn’t actually even belong to WarnerMedia. The series managed to outpace shows like Game of Thrones, Friends, and Our Flag Means Death in March, according to numbers from Parrot Analytics. This likely means Warner will be trying hard to find another show to fill South Park‘s niche, since they will potentially lose the domestic rights to South Park in 2024. It’s likely the series will head to Paramount+, as more and more  big-hit shows are being held aside for their owners’ streaming apps. Just ask Warner, who took Friends back from Netflix not that long ago.

The five-year deal, inked by HBO Max in 2019, cost $500 million, which is a big number, but not nearly as costly as similar deals inked for shows like Seinfeld and The Office. South Park will leave HBO Max for Paramount+ later this year in territories outside of the United States.

Parrot Analytics’ data, which takes into account consumer research data, streaming, downloads and social media, among other consumer engagement, indicated that South Park had 48 times the average demand from HBO Max consumers. That may sound like a roundabout way of measuring things, but compare it to comic book sales. It’s rare that publishers provide specific numbers, so an index is created to 

Other big hits for HBO Max include The Big Bang Theory and Our Flag Means Death, as well as the adult animation Rick and Morty. Our Flag Means Death, like Peacemaker before it, got more popular as it went, and has retained higher ratings after its finale dropped, according to Parrot. The Big Bang Theory is interesting, because it seems to perform better than comparable series like Seinfeld and Friends. That’s likely due to the fact that Young Sheldon continues to be a big hit on CBS, and that keeps the characters and their stories very front-and-center in the minds of audiences.

In addition to standard episodes of the long-running animated series, South Park has recently had a pair of special episodes about the Covid-19 pandemic, which were heavily promoted and have attracted a ton of attention.