“South Park” is saying goodbye to its short but lively 27th season.
The sixth episode of the year, airing Wednesday on Comedy Central, marks the first episode of season 28, a network spokesperson confirmed to The Times. (The episode will stream on Paramount+ on Thursday.)
The reason for the decision to end season 27, which was originally expected to have 10 episodes, is unclear. But fans of the long-running satire will still get four additional episodes this year, if “South Park” co-creator Matt Stone and Trey Parker stick to the schedule they outlined. Fans had been speculating about the start of a new season after seeing television listings that listed Wednesday's episode as the first of season 28.
The new episode, titled “Twisted Christian,” follows a possessed Cartman, who “may be the key to stopping the Antichrist,” according to his brief description. A brief teaser also shows South Park Elementary School students interacting with the viral slang “67,” an essentially meaningless phrase that has taken over Generation Alpha.
Recent episodes have drawn large audiences and, as always, have poked fun at current events and political figures, including President Trump, immigration raids, tariffs, and the FCC. Even Paramount, which bought the global streaming rights to “South Park” this summer in a $1.5 billion deal, has been the butt of several jokes.
Season 27 had an unusual cadence of episodes, with the first two arriving on a weekly schedule, then bi-weekly before the arrival of the most recent episode (and apparent season finale), which aired three weeks later on September 25.
The second episode drew criticism for its parody of Charlie Kirk, the murdered influential politician, even though the episode aired weeks before his death. Paramount-owned Comedy Central announced it will not air reruns of the second episode of the final season after Kirk was shot and killed Sept. 10 in Utah. The episode can still be found on Paramount+.
The final episode of season 27 was the first to air after Kirk's death, but Parker and Stone told the Denver Post that the delay was unrelated to its content: “No one pulled the episode, no one censored us, and you know we would say it if it were true.” The couple released a statement on September 17 saying that the episode did not end on time.
Future episodes of “South Park” will air every two weeks until December 10.
Times TV editor Maira García contributed to this report.
