South Park made a splash with its season 27 premiere last week, attacking President Donald Trump. But those fans eager to see the encore will have to wait. The Comedy Central series will not air a new episode tonight.
Last week, South Park took its biggest swing at President Trump, jumping right into the controversy involving the president, Paramount, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The season premiere saw Trump replace Saddam Hussein in an animation from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker mocked Trump's appearance and portrayed him in a toxic relationship with the devil.
The White House responded by dismissing South Park as irrelevant. But the controversy surrounding the season 27 premiere has nothing to do with the show taking tonight off. According to sources at The Wrap, a break was preplanned before Comedy Central aired the season premiere.
The network (owned by Paramount) will re-air the premiere episode tonight. A new episode is set to debut on Wednesday, August 6, at 10:00 p.m. ET. And like late-night TV, South Park is showing no signs of backing down from President Trump, no matter what kind of threats come its way.
A teaser for the new episode reveals that the Donald Trump character will return alongside the devil. It also looks like Cartman will play a Charlie Kirk-esque character in a confrontation with Bebe. Meanwhile, Mr. Mackey appears to be assisting with ICE raids. It's worth noting that Mr. Garrison had been South Park's stand-in for Donald Trump during the past decade. However, Parker and Stone appear ready to take more direct shots at the current president.
The episode two teaser also suggests Paramount has no intention of interfering with what South Park wants to achieve in season 27. Reports indicated the network was well aware of what was coming in the premiere episode.
It stands in opposition to the theory that Paramount cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in an effort to curry favor with the Trump administration. While it's true the FCC was holding up Paramount's sale to Skydance, the media company maintains it was strictly a financial decision to end The Late Show. Still, the optics of cancelling Colbert days after he criticized Paramount's settlement with President Trump haven't been ignored.
Now, it seems like Paramount will have to contend with both South Park and Stephen Colbert taking shots while still cashing checks from the company. Paramount may stand there and take it, but it's safe to assume we haven't heard the last from Donald Trump about either program.
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