‘South Park’ Fails To Air New Episode After Trey Parker And Matt Stone Miss Deadline

South Park fans got a shock when they turned on Comedy Central on Wednesday night and found a re-run.

The show had been slated to air an episode titled “Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers,” but the show’s creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone had a bit of a hitch in production. A power outage shut the Comedy Central studio down on Tuesday night, preventing the down-to-the-wire production of the episode.

With computers at the studio down for hours, South Park animators, editors, and sound mixers were left with nothing to do but wait.

The show had been cutting it close for years, Parker acknowledged. Known for working in topical references from just days before airing, the show often came right down to its deadline.

Parker said he regrets that South Park fans missed out on this week’s episode, but said that with the hectic schedule it was always a possibility.

“It sucks to miss an air date but after all these years of tempting fate by delivering the show last minute, I guess it was bound to happen,” he said.

Despite the hitch, South Park will likely continue with its tight production schedule.

“I think one of the reasons they do South Park at the last minute … is they always think they’re going to find something funnier if they don’t put it down until the very last minute,” producer Anne Garefino told 60 Minutes in an interview earlier this year.

South Park fans were instead treated to one of the show’s classic episodes, “Scott Tenorman Must Die.” The episode originally slated to air on Wednesday is now set to air next week.