‘South Park’ Momentum Continues With Cross-Platform Ratings Bump for ICE-Baiting Episode

‘South Park’ Momentum Continues With Cross-Platform Ratings Bump for ICE-Baiting Episode

South Park’s 27th season continued its strong start in episode two.

After a big jump in on-air ratings for the Aug. 6 episode, the Comedy Central show’s cross-platform numbers also improved on the season 27 premiere. Over three days of streaming and other delayed viewing on Paramount+ and Comedy Central, the episode brought in 6.2 million viewers, Paramount Skydance says, based on Nielsen numbers and internal streaming data.

That’s up about 5 percent from the 5.9 million people who watched the season 27 premiere over three days. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone signed a rich new deal with Paramount just ahead of the season, which gave the show a next-day streaming outlet for the first time. That has helped boost the show’s cross-platform viewing significantly.

Streaming of South Park’s library, which also now lives on Paramount+, also grew significantly in the three days after the Aug. 6 episode. Though Paramount didn’t provide exact figures, the company says the show’s catalog drew 49 percent more viewing time than over the same amount of time following the season premiere.

On Comedy Central, episode 2702 — which mocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — delivered 1.56 million viewers in Nielsen’s three-day ratings, up from 1.07 million for the season premiere. It also scored aa 1.53 rating among adults 18-49 among U.S. households that receive the channel (its rating among all TV homes would be somewhat lower), up from just below 1.0 for the premiere.

South Park is taking this week off and will air a new episode on Aug. 20. Comedy Central is airing a marathon of episodes in celebration of the show premiering 28 years ago, leading up to a replay of the series debut at 10 p.m. ET/PT.