Comedy Central has delayed tonight’s episode of South Park just hours before it was due to air.
Co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone issued a statement insisting the blame lay at their door.
“Apparently when you do everything at the last minute sometimes you don’t get it done,” the statement read, as reported by Variety. “This one’s on us. We didn’t get it done in time. Thanks to Comedy Central and South Park fans for being so understanding. Tune in next week!”
Parker and Stone create each episode week-by-week, which makes for a chaotic production but topical shows. But they have switched to a bi-weekly schedule for this season, with the elongated production time allowing the pair more room to work on each episode, something Paramount is reportedly happy with.
It’s worth noting that during their San Diego Comic-Con 2025 panel, which took place the day after the Donald Trump-skewering Season 27 opener aired, Parker said the pair were unsure what the next episode would be, revealing the decision was “super stressful.”
As far as we at IGN are aware, Parker and Stone have missed the scheduled release of South Park just once before, due to a power outage, but never for not getting an episode done in time.
Last week, Comedy Central pulled the scheduled repeat of the recent South Park episode following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Comedy Central pulled the episode from a showing on the night of Wednesday, September 10, after Kirk, an ally of President Trump, was shot at a Utah university earlier that day.
The episode in question is Season 27, Episode 2, titled Got a Nut. In it, Eric Cartman cosplays as Charlie Kirk, becomes a right-wing podcaster and issues messages similar to those used by Kirk in the past as he "masterdebaters" college graduates. Cartman even dishes out an award called 'The Charlie Kirk Award for Young Masterdebaters.'
Kirk had responded to the episode at the time in a TikTok post, calling it “hilarious” and even saying “South Park gets this right. I think they've been watching a lot of Charlie Kirk videos.” He added: “We have a good spirit about being made fun of. This is all a success, this is all a win. We as conservatives, we have thick skin, not thin skin, and you can make fun of us and it doesn’t matter.”
@thecharliekirkshow ♬ original sound - The Charlie Kirk Show
Some MAGA conservatives had hit out South Park, drawing a line between the show and Kirk’s murder. Kirk is not mentioned in Parker and Stone's statement.
South Park’s recent episodes have drawn some of the series' best-ever ratings, as well as global attention, for their no holds barred depiction of President Trump. But the episodes are taking longer to produce, with just four arriving in the eight weeks since Season 27's debut.
The delayed episode will be the first since Kirk's death, and is now due to air next Wednesday, September 24. Variety reported South Park will then take a further two weeks off before resuming its bi-weekly schedule from October 15 to December 10.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
