South Park is getting 6 new seasons and 14 movies, thanks to the show’s latest deals with both Comedy Central and Paramount+, respectively. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have reportedly inked a new deal with ViacomCBSand the MTV Entertainment Studios brand, which features the pair producing 14 films for Paramount+ using the South Park franchise. As a part of that same deal, the main South Park series has been renewed at Comedy Central through season 30, which is scheduled to arrive in 2027. With licensing fees and production overhead costs for all new seasons and movies built-in, the deal is reportedly valued at $900 million.
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Trey Parker and Matt Stone have released a statement about the new deal:
“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. 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.”
Like every other production in the entertainment industry, South Park had to adapt to the new world stipulations of the COVID-19 pandemic and its lockdowns. South Park is a show that has literally made fame out of its hectic and tight production schedule, so the pandemic really was a disruption to that process. Parker, Stone, and their team managed to put together two hour-long South Park specials during the pandemic, “The Pandemic Special” in fall 2020 and “South ParQ Vaccination Special” in spring of 2021. From Parker and Stone’s statement, it sounds like the success of those specials is something ViacomCBS sees as a great lane for more South Park content that can be leveraged as a draw to Paramount+’s original content library.
Chris McCarthy, president-CEO of MTV Entertainment and chief content officer of adult animation for Paramount Plus has released a statement on the deal, which basically confirms that’s exactly what the plan is:
“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. 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 Plus.”
South Park season 24 is in development.
Source: Variety
