South Park Premiere Trashing Trump and Paramount Breaks Records

South Park's ferocious takedown of Donald Trump's lawfare and the show's cable-and-streaming partner Paramount Global made for a record-breaking season premiere last Wednesday, July 23. The episode brought in 5.9 million viewers from cable on Paramount Global property Comedy Central and the Paramount+ streaming service, and Comedy Central noted it was South Park's biggest cable share for a premiere since 1999. Paramount said it was overall the "best season premiere rating since 2022."

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone pulled no punches in the au courant episode, which opened with Eric Cartman asking Alexa to tune into 90.1 — which happens to be where Colorado Public Radio lives on the dial in the Denver metro. The station just plays static, so Cartman asks his mom what happened to his favorite "show," National Public Radio. She tells him the president canceled NPR, and Cartman moans about the loss: "The funniest show ever, where all the lesbians and Jews complain and stuff."

At school, Jesus is brought in to "bring some normality back in these corrupt times," and Stan's dad is pissed. At the wine bar, the TV news announces, "The president stated earlier today that the spirit of Jesus is important to our country, and he will sue anyone who doesn't agree with him."

Woke is dead, as Cartman's shirt shouts. And in the White House, Donald J. Trump — rendered with his actual face, just like South Park did with Saddam Hussein — is complaining about a portrait, much as he did with one in the Colorado State Capitol. "Why is my dick so small?" Trump demands of the artist. "But that's the size it is in the photo," the painter replies as he's hauled off by Secret Service agents.

Trump's minuscule dick — at one point it speaks, with googly eyes attached — features extensively, as DJT gets in bed with Satan at the White House, where he's trying to cop some action. Satan, who used to date Saddam Hussein, is unimpressed. "You remind me more and more of this other guy I used to date, like a lot," Satan tells the president. "Like, you guys are exactly alike."
The episode is a tour de force aimed at Trump and Paramount. Jesus whispers to the South Park residents that he's been forced into their school because it was part of a lawsuit and an agreement with Paramount. "The guy can do whatever he wants now that someone backed down," Jesus says through clenched teeth. "You guys saw what happened to CBS? Yeah, well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount! You really wanna end up like Colbert?"

The penultimate scene in the episode is a public service announcement that the residents of South Park must produce as part of the town’s legal settlement with Donald Trump. It’s reminiscent of a DJT campaign ad, and uses AI and live-action cinematography to show Trump stripping off his clothes in the desert, with a cameo by his talking, googly-eyed micropenis.

The White House released a statement the day after the premiere criticizing the episode. “This show hasn’t been relevant for over twenty years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in the statement. “President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country’s history – and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.”
The same day the White House was critiquing South Park, the FCC approved the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media, run by David Ellison, son of Trump friend and billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison. In its bid for the merger's approval, Paramount settled a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump accusing CBS, a Paramount property, of editing a 60 Minutes interview with then-presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris to favor Harris's message.

Paramount settled the suit for $16 million; before that settlement, 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned and CBS News president Wendy McMahon was forced out.

When the South Park season premiere was bumped two weeks by Comedy Central in early July, Parker and Stone criticized the deal between the companies, writing on X: “This merger is a shitshow and it’s fucking up South Park.”

But they struck a new, $1.5 billion deal just before the season premiere, sending the archive of reruns to Paramount+, and allowing the already-delayed-by-two-weeks premiere of Season 27 of South Park to debut last Wednesday on Comedy Central.

South Park did not air episode two of season 27 last night, but it’s unlikely that was due to the ruckus the premiere caused with its parent company. Last Thursday, at Comic Con in San Diego, South Park creators Parker and Stone were on a panel discussion about adult animation. According to The Wrap, Parker said, “We were at 'South Park' this morning trying to figure out what next week’s show is going to be. So right now, we don’t know, but that’s how the show’s always been.” He continued, “I mean, it seems like it’s very stressful, the way I don’t know what the episode is next week.”

The two also told the Comic Con audience how they’d battled Comedy Central over an attempt to blur out Trump’s penis in the fake public service announcement. The argument concluded with putting eyes on the penis (actually Stone’s finger, as seen in the post below) and making it a character. We’ll warn you again: the microscopic monstrosity speaks.

On Tuesday, July 29, South Park announced that episode two of season 27 will air on August 6 on Comedy Central.

A little behind the scenes. pic.twitter.com/M25RjoRooE

— South Park (@SouthPark) July 29, 2025