Reason South Park season 27 abruptly ended following controversy and sudden schedule shifts
South Park quietly announced the premiere of season 28 during its return from a three-week hiatus on Oct. 15. The start of season 28 was unexpected, as well as the end of season 27
South Park unexpectedly ushered in a new season during last week's episode and suddenly ended another.
Last week, it was revealed that the new episode of the Comedy Central animated adult series had premiered the debut episode of season 28. The episode, titled 'Twisted Christian' aired on Wednesday, Oct. 15, and came three weeks after the last South Park episode.
That episode titled 'Conflict of Interest' aired on Wednesday, Sept. 24, and is now officially the last episode of season 27. The news was confusing to some fans, who were not aware the season was ending and believed there was going to be 10 episodes in season 27 from previous media reports.
A spokesperson for the show suggested to the The Hollywood Reporter that the expected 10 episode season run was misreporting. They stated that season 27 was never intended to be a full episodes and the showrunners had planned for both season 27 and 28 to be five episodes each.
The spokesperson from Comedy Central also clarified to the outlet and to The Mirror US that there was no announcement pertaining to the number of episodes in season 27 at the time it premiered.
According to THR and press releases The Mirror US obtained, the releases had the air dates of the upcoming episodes and didn't name them as one continuous season nor separate as well.
While the spokesperson clarified that season 27 was never meant to be 10 episodes, they didn't fully explain the lack of announcement about season 27 ending and season 28 debuting.
Season 27 first debut on July 23, 2025, following an announcement made on July 21 that creators Trey Parker and Matt Stones reached a $1.5-billion, five-year streaming deal with Paramount+.
Season 27's run largely took aim at Trump's administration and was riddled with controversy and schedule changes. Many conservatives were also blaming South Park for Charlie Kirk's death following him being murdered at a Utah Valley University event on Sept. 10. Despite the backlash and accusations, Charlie had shared at the time that he found the episode (Got a Nut) "hilarious" on his TikTok.
When the episode was pulled from the line-up, The Charlie Kirk Show's executive producer Andrew Colvet urged Paramount+ to bring it back and said the right-wing political commentator "loved that he was featured in South Park."
Then episode five of season 27 (Conflict of Interest) was delayed by a week, the show creators has explained the delay had to do with them not finishing the episode on time and dispelled rumors about the postponement having to do with censorship.
"No one pulled the episode, no one censored us, and you know we’d say so if true," Matt told The Denver Post at the time. "We just didn’t get it done. When you always cut it close, sometimes you mess up. That’s the price of being a procrastinator."
Season 27 premiere also comes after South Park's two year hiatus — season 26 aired from Feb. 8, 2023, and ended on March 29, 2023. Short seasons are nothing new for South Park as well. Season 25 and Season 26 had six episodes and season 24 aired with only two episodes, marking it as the shortest season.
The longest season of South Park was season two with 18 episodes and previous seasons had range from 10 to 14. In 2020, the episode count seemed to change to shorter from then on with season 24. A new episode of South Park will be airing on Wednesday, October 29 on Comedy Central and the next day on Paramount+.