South Park Season 27 and Season 28 Having Just 5 Episodes Each Was Reportedly Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Plan All Along

The determination to bring South Park Season 27 to an extremity aft conscionable 5 episodes and footwear disconnected Season 28 has gone without an authoritative mentation from either Comedy Central, Paramount, oregon bid co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. But a caller nonfiction has suggested determination was misreporting astir however galore episodes Season 27 would see earlier it adjacent began, and that the showrunners ever planned for Season 27 and Season 28 to person 5 episodes each.

Last week, South Park shocked fans by kicking disconnected Season 28 with a caller occurrence dubbed Twisted Christian. Season 28, Episode 1 — the sixth occurrence of South Park broadcast this twelvemonth — deed Comedy Central connected October 15.

Season 27 had enjoyed large ratings and sparked overmuch debate, but it besides suffered an erratic merchandise schedule. The archetypal 2 episodes arrived connected the modular play schedule, but past the bid switched to a biweekly docket earlier the delayed 5th episode, which present goes down arsenic the bid finale, aired 3 weeks aboriginal connected September 25.

Three weeks aft that and without explanation, South Park returned with Season 28. Fans had expected that Season 27 would person 10 episodes — but we present cognize it volition beryllium 5 for Season 27 and 5 for Season 28. The last 4 episodes of Season 28 volition present aerial each 2 weeks done December 10 (October 29, November 12, November 26, and December 10).

So, what happened? Parker and Stone person yet to remark successful an authoritative capacity, but The Hollywood Reporter said that a typical of South Park suggested determination was misreporting implicit however galore episodes Season 27 was meant to contain, and that the showrunners planned each on for Seasons 27 and 28 to diagnostic conscionable 5 episodes each. Comedy Central told THR that nary announcement was made regarding the fig of episodes successful play 27 astatine the clip it debuted.

THR suggests there’s much to this story, and we're near with plentifulness of questions. Fans are speculating that the determination has thing to bash with Parker and Stone’s reported $1.5 cardinal declaration to marque 50 episodes of South Park implicit 5 years for Paramount, but that remains unconfirmed for now. And it's worthy noting that Season 27 did not extremity arsenic you'd expect a play of TV to with a wrapper up of its assorted storylines. Indeed Season 28 kicked disconnected with an occurrence that seamlessly continued the overarching storyline of Donal Trump and Satan having a baby. If the 5th and sixth episodes weren't labeled Season 27 and Season 28, you'd ne'er cognize South Park had ended 1 play and began another.

Comedy Central had delayed the Season 27 ender conscionable hours earlier it was owed to air, with Parker and Stone insisting the blasted laic astatine their door. “Apparently erstwhile you bash everything astatine the past infinitesimal sometimes you don’t get it done,” the brace told Variety. “This one’s connected us. We didn’t get it done successful time. Thanks to Comedy Central and South Park fans for being truthful understanding. Tune successful adjacent week!”

Parker and Stone make each occurrence week-by-week, which makes for a chaotic accumulation but topical shows. But they had switched to a biweekly docket for Season 27, with the elongated accumulation clip allowing the brace much country to enactment connected each episode, thing Paramount was reportedly blessed with.

It’s worthy noting that during their San Diego Comic-Con 2025 panel, which took spot the time aft the Donald Trump-skewering Season 27 opener aired, Parker said the brace were unsure what the adjacent occurrence would be, revealing the determination was “super stressful.”

Wesley is Director, News astatine IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine [email protected] oregon confidentially astatine [email protected].