If you’d tuned into Comedy Central on Wednesday night hoping to see a new episode of South Park, you would’ve been disappointed.
Despite the fact that the show’s 27th season kicked off in July, a rerun of the season premiere aired in place of the new episode that had been scheduled for last night.
Viewers were left scratching their heads, and many wondered if the last-minute change had anything to do with the recent murder of Charlie Kirk.
Charlie Kirk-based South Park episode creates controversy
As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Kirk was shot and killed during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University last week.
The August 6 episode of South Park satirized Kirk’s public persona and his habit of engaging in tense debates with college students whose views did not align with his own.
Kirk stated that he was not offended by the portrayal, and he even changed the profile picture on some of his social media accounts to a screenshot of Eric Cartman as a Kirk-like firebrand.
But the episode became a source of controversy in the wake of Kirk’s death, and Variety has now confirmed that Comedy Central will not re-air it.
(The episode is still available for streaming on Paramount+.)
In a statement, Comedy Central attributed the last-minute change in plans to a “production delay” — which actually makes perfect sense.
After all, South Park runs on a notoriously tight schedule that enables showrunners Trey Parker and Matt Stone to address the week’s top news stories.
The process was detailed in a 2011 documentary titled 6 Days to Air, which revealed that episodes are often completed at the last minute.
But Parker and Stone don’t usually miss deadlines, and given the current political climate, it’s not surprising that some fans believe there’s more to this story.
Will ‘South Park’ meet the same fate as ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’?
As we previously reported, Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC talk show was abruptly pulled from the air on Wednesday.
The surprising move came after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr encouraged owners of local ABC affiliates to pull Kimmel’s show from their stations in response to his comments about Kirk.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” Kimmel said.
Asked about the move today, President Trump, who is currently on a state visit to the UK, told the British media that Kimmel “said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk, and Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person.”
“He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago. So, you know, you can call that free speech or not,” Trump added. “He was fired for lack of talent.”
We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.