‘Tis the season of institutional adult TV animation renewals, y’all.
Following word trickling down that The Simpsons could very well be on the air until at least Season 30 – with all its core cast in tact – comes the word that South Park has been picked up again by Comedy Central in a brand spanking new deal that will see the quiet mountain town remain on the air for the next five years.
Head honchos Matt Stone and Trey Parker inked the deal with the network that will bring the show up to the 2019-2020 season, and will see the show sail past the 23 season/300 episode mark. Which, for a program that was made out of construction paper and debuted with a story about aliens ramming a satellite probe up an 8 year old’s clacker, ain’t too bad an achievement at all.
More to that, streaming giant Hulu also revealed it has spent an absurd amount of money on bringing the entire back catalogue of the show to its servers. The $192million, five year deal eclipses the previous high water mark set when it acquired Seinfeld not too long ago, and will see every South Park episode available to stream, with new episodes appearing the day after they air on Comedy Central. On top of that, Hulu has taken over operation of South Park’s groundbreaking SouthParkStudios website, which has long been making full episodes available online to stream for free.
Stone stated that he and Parker felt vindicated by the Hulu deal, which brings the free content/piracy saga to something of a close.
“It comes full circle since the tech guys came to Hollywood and said you better give us your stuff for free to put online or else it will be taken from you anyway. We don’t make content. We make television. And that’s now what digital understands it has to pay for.”
So there you have it, friends. It’s real simple.
Phase 1: Create a beloved, boundary pushing, animated TV series and run it for 23 seasons.
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit.
via The AV Club.
