'South Park' to Begin Streaming Exclusively on Hulu Plus
South Park is headed to Hulu Plus. All of it.
Yes, all 17 seasons of the Comedy Central series will stream exclusively on Hulu Plus, although I'm still trying to wrap my head around how it's been seventeen years since 1997.
The three-year deal was made official at the TCA Summer Press Tour, as it was announced that the entire catalog of 250 South Park episodes would be made available on the service. Specifically, the episodes will be made available for free until the Sept. 24 premiere of season 18, at which point only Hulu Plus subscribers will have access to every season. However, new episodes of the show will be made available the next day on both Hulu and Hulu Plus, as well as through South Park Studios, the Comedy Central website that currently hosts every episode for streaming. In addition, an alternating selection of free episodes will be made available through South Park Studios.
"South Park has revolutionized TV and pushed boundaries with unparalleled topicality and daring humor," said Hulu content chief Craig Erwich. "South Park has been one of the top ten most popular shows of all time on the platform. We're thrilled to offer the series to fans in its entirety."
Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone added: "This is a natural partnership for us. We are excited that the entire library will be available on Hulu and that the best technology around will power South Park Digital Studios."
During Hulu's TCA presentation, Parker and Stone took the stage for a surprise Q&A panel, joking that they chose Hulu as host for their episode library because they've wanted to rip off the streaming giant's video player for years.
"We were always looking at Hulu’s player with jealousy with envy," said Stone. "We want our show to always have the best possible presentation. I think in the back of our minds we were thinking about how we could partner with Hulu."
Parker emphasized that a key reason was the technological inefficiency of the South Park Studios player, which is powered by Comedy Central. "South Park Studios will now work," he said with a laugh.
However, neither Parker nor Stone is entirely certain which free episodes will be rotated through the South Park Studios site once the entire library transfers to Hulu, nor are they certain how they will decide which episodes will be aired. But they stated their goal is to minimize reruns, offering a website that allows a viewer to watch an episode or two everyday without running out of new episodes to watch, which is an admirable goal in itself (even if viewers end up getting stuck with, say, "A Thousand Little Fibers," which was just...ugh).
"We've got 250 episodes now," said Stone. "So we've got plenty to feed different windows and different experiences."
With all this said, I know some South Park fans are accusing these guys of selling out to corporate institutions, but considering they've given us 18 years of a damn funny show, I'm not exactly going to begrudge them their choice to make a further profit off of it. After all, not everything this subversive gets to be this successful.
Credit: Comedy Central