South Park And Beavis And Butt-Head Will Stream Exclusively On Paramount+ In 2025

Paramount+ is about to become the home of edgy adult animation, as the streamer is regaining the library rights to Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "South Park" in 2025, and is taking over for Comedy Central as the home for the revival of Greg Daniels and Mike Judge's "Beavis and Butt-Head." The service is already home to a 14 movie deal over the course of five years for "South Park" and the planned "Beavis and Butt-Head" movie, so it makes complete sense why Paramount+ would become home to the show's existing catalogs and future episodes. That said, this means HBO Max is losing the rights to "South Park," with 25 seasons of the extremely popular television series soon to vanish off their platform. The deal between ViacomCBS (now named Paramount) and WarnerMedia's HBO Max was made in 2019, before the launch of Paramount+, and was valued at over $500 million.

International audiences will be able to enjoy "South Park" on Paramount+ as early as next year, but new episodes of the show will appear on the streamer in the United States and globally in 2024 at the start of season 27. The existing seasons will appear on the platform the following year, and the deal with Paramount will be in effect through the show's 30th season. The two-season "Beavis and Butt-Head" revival and possible related spinoffs are pivoting away from Comedy Central toward Paramount+, joining the existing library of over 200 episodes already on the streamer.

With Paramount serving as the parent company for both Comedy Central and MTV, "South Park" and "Beavis and Butt-Head" on Paramount+ just feels right. The original deal with HBO Max for "South Park" was part of a Viacom strategy to get viewers on more established platforms interested in the company's biggest intellectual properties, but once CBS All Access rebranded as Paramount+, it was time for the show to "come home," so to speak. According to Chris McCarthy, who oversees unscripted and adult animation for ViacomCBS, "By expanding the universe of these franchises, we are unlocking significant value within ViacomCBS' treasure chest of IP and this is just the beginning."

The change will also alleviate audience confusion and solidify brand recognition, as it's surely been frustrating to watch episodes of "South Park" on HBO Max, only to have to switch over to Paramount+ to watch the COVID specials. As for the shift away from Comedy Central for "Beavis and Butt-Head," it's hard not to see the decision as another cough of the death rattle of Comedy Central as more and more people pivot away from cable.