SOUTH PARK: no new episode tonight as Halloween episode moves to Friday

South Park‘s next episode, which was scheduled to air tonight, will instead air on Friday night, Comedy Central announced today. The long-running animated series, which has experienced a wave of attention this year after doubling down on topical political humor, will air its Halloween episode on…well…Halloween.

South Park, now in its 28th season, has shifted its schedule around a few times this year, presumably because their focus on topical humor has changed the production timetable when a new idea has to be animated.

Friday’s episode is titled “The Woman in the Hat.” Per the synopsis (available at The Hollywood Reporter), “The White House deals with a disruptive spirit from the east wing; Stan worries that South Park has become too political.”

That last bit is, of course, a bit of meta-humor directed at the show and its critics. While South Park took aim at Trump, parent company Paramount Skydance paid millions to settle bad-faith lawsuits from the President. CBS, a division of Paramount Skydance, also cancelled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in what is widely regarded as an attempt to please Trump, and appointed a conservative blogger to oversee CBS News.

Presumably, that “disruptive spirit” will be related to the ongoing renovations at the White House, where U.S. President Donald Trump is overseeing the construction of a $300 million ballroom funded primarily by a mix of taxpayer money and big corporate donations.

Season 28 has had a subplot centering on the pending birth of the Antichrist, a byproduct of a sexual relationship between Satan and Donald Trump, in a nod to the devil’s South Park sexual relationship with Saddam Hussein in earlier seasons. Vice President J.D. Vance chimed in on the South Park premiere, seemingly happy to be part of the fun, joking that an appearance on the series means he “finally made it.” In the show’s universe, Cartman spent the premiere convinced that he might be key to stopping the rise of the Antichrist.

Just before the latest season began, Paramount Global paid $1.5 billion for a 5-year deal that granted them the streaming rights to South Park‘s library. In addition to 28 years of episodes and a theatrical feature, South Park has released a number of Paramount+ original specials, including South Park: The Streaming Wars and South Park: Post COVID.

South Park doesn’t have the extensive Halloween library that The Simpsons does; the series had fewer than 15 Halloween/spooky season episodes over the first 27 seasons, and only ten explicitly “Halloween” episodes. Of course, in a season that has a major plot centered on the Antichrist, it isn’t surprising that the producers would want to lean into ghouls and goblins.