The White House may not be laughing, but South Park’s Donald Trump-mocking season opener just pulled off a historic ratings feat.
The long-running animated series is basking in its biggest premiere since the Clinton era, with the episode—featuring a depiction of Trump’s “teeny-tiny” manhood—drawing the largest share of cable viewers for a season opener since 1999, according to a Comedy Central press release. Viewership jumped 68 percent compared to last season’s premiere.
In the three days following its July 23 debut, the episode, titled “Sermon on the ‘Mount,’” drew nearly 6 million viewers across Comedy Central and the Paramount+ streaming service. It was the most-watched show on all cable channels on its debut day.
South Park, which first aired on August 13, 1997, didn’t just dominate cable, it also lit up social media. Comedy Central noted that #SouthPark trended on X for more than 12 hours.
The Season 27 opener, which depicted Trump complaining about his micropenis and cozying up to Satan under covers, made Joe Rogan giggle, but drew a furious response from the White House.
“This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the Daily Beast in the wake of its season premiere.
Ironically, South Park’s parent company Paramount stands to profit from the strong ratings.
The episode satirized Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump, which came as the company was seeking federal approval from the FCC for its merger with Skydance Media (which was approved one day after South Park‘s latest episode). It also called out CBS, one of Paramount’s subsidiaries, for ousting The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, a vocal critic of the president.
South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone signed a $1.5 billion streaming deal with Paramount just before the season premiere.
Following the explosive release of the episode, which ended with Trump’s erect micropenis filling the screen and a voiceover declaring, “Trump: His penis is teeny-tiny, but his love for us is large,” South Park delayed its second episode, airing a repeat of the record-breaking episode instead on Wednesday.
A new episode will air on Wednesday, August 6 at 10 p.m. ET on Comedy Central and the next day on Paramount+.
