‘South Park’ Skipping Another Week Amid Controversy, Record Ratings

South Park is so on fire right now, it even makes news for not airing an episode.

Comedy Central is not airing a new episode of the animated hit series this week — the second time the show has not run a weekly episode since its season 27 premiere just a few weeks ago. But unlike when the show abruptly skipped its second week of the season (and unlike when the season premiere itself was delayed two weeks), this hiatus has been baked into the schedule for a while.

Instead, the cable network has declared Aug. 13 “South Park Day” and is running a marathon of fan-favorite episodes starting at 9 a.m. ET which leads up to an airing of the show’s first episode, “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe,” in the show’s usual 10 p.m. ET time slot. The programming will also feature interviews with creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, behind-the-scenes footage and rare clips. The event marks the anniversary of the show’s first episode in 1997.

The pause also gives the production a bit of breathing room. The show operates on a famously tight schedule, with Parker and Stone creating entire episodes in just six days and often delivering a locked cut hours before Comedy Central’s deadline.

The skipped week comes amid the production experiencing a massive — and perhaps unprecedented — amount of attention and scrutiny while heavily targeting the Trump Administration (and, in the season premiere, its own parent company, Paramount Global). While the Administration has gamely, and repeatedly, fired back.

Earlier this week, the production released a bonus “end credits scene” to last week’s episode mocking Kristi Noem. The clip (below) showed the Homeland Security Secretary shooting up a pets store. The production’s X page also changed its avatar to Noem’s “melting face” from the episode after she blasted the show, saying, “It’s so lazy to make fun of women for how they look. Only the liberals and the extremists do that.”

Meanwhile, the show’s ratings have been setting records. The season 27 premiere delivered 6 million cross-platform viewers and had the show’s biggest share in 25 years. Early estimates from Samba on the show’s second episode showed live viewing jumping 25 percent from the season premiere.

Season 27 consists of 10 episodes and is expected to continue next week.