South Park is back and still causing trouble in its quiet mountain town even in its 26th season.
The latest run of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's animated series will be spread out across the rest of the upcoming year. That's not including a further four seasons and 14 specials/TV movies that will see the Comedy Central series right through to 2027.
It's worth noting, though, that we'll most likely be treated to at least one of those specials before the show returns to its regular, episodic format.
So, what's going on with season 26, how will it be delivered to us, and how many episodes will it feature? Here's everything you need to know.
South Park season 26 release date: When will it air?
South Park season 26 launched on Comedy Central on February 8, 2023, and is currently airing weekly.
The first episode, 'Cupid Ye', saw Kyle and Tolkien start making TikToks together, causing a media uproar as an imaginary alter-ego from Cartman, Cupid Ye, starts going on public rants about Jewish people ruling the media.
This was a direct mocking of Kanye West, who himself has been publicly slammed for numerous antisemitic comments, tweets and rants in interviews (including one with Alex Jones's InfoWars, where he spoke positively of Hitler).
The interview was directly parodied in the episode as 'Cupid Ye's' rants began gaining support.
The second episode, 'The Worldwide Privacy Tour' took aim at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – sorry, "The Prince of Canada and his wife" – who take up home in South Park in a bid to get less media attention.
Due to its connection to the Royal couple, it naturally caused a lot of controversy and gained a lot of column inches in tabloids, who claim the episode resulted in Harry and Meghan 'being considered less likeable than Prince Andrew in the US' (via DailyMail). Eeesh.
However, despite the less-than-favourable parody, Prince Harry and Meghan's spokesperson released a statement saying the couple has no intention to sue the show for its depiction of them. (via The Guardian), saying such speculation was "baseless" and "frankly nonsense"
South Park season 26 episodes: How many will there be?
Currently, it's not known how the episodes will play out – but season 25 ran extremely short with only six episodes before the team focused on specials.
It seems likely that, given the amount of extension the show has already secured, South Park will have a mix of normal episodes and specials across 2022.
We'll give you the full update here when we have it.
South Park season 26 trailer: Has it been released yet?
Yes, the series dropped its typically chaotic teaser ahead of the season 26 release.
Only 15 seconds in length, not much was really shown – although Butters is seen attached to a contraption that seems to be making its way to his anus.
So, expect more of the same then, we guess.
South Park airs on Comedy Central. It's also available via streaming services including Paramount+ and Amazon Prime Video. In the US, it's also available on HBO Max.
