‘South Park’ Season 29 Premiere Hits 4.2 Million Viewers in Three Days and Jumps 33% in Rating After Renaming to ‘South America’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s latest stunt has paid off. The Season 29 premiere of “South America” — renamed from “South Park” as a parody of Donald Trump’s controversial initiatives to rename major landmarks — hit 4.2 million viewers in three days.

That total accounts for viewership across Comedy Central and Paramount+ in the U.S. alone. The episode’s audience was relatively even with the previous season premiere, which reached 4.3 million viewers in three days, while making strong improvements among viewers age 18-49. In that demographic, the episode scored a 0.97 rating after three days, up 33% from Season 28’s 0.73 rating, and a share of 4.77, up from 20% from last year’s 3.96. Between Monday and Friday, the “South America” premiere was the most-watched cable telecast of the week among adults 18-49, excluding sports programming.

Unsurprisingly, the first episode since renaming to “South America” drove conversation on social media. On the day of its premiere, the series ranked as the No. 1 most social cable comedy, and went on to generate 11 million views and one million engagements in three days. It garnered 63,000 online mentions in three days, a 40% increase from what the Season 28 premiere achieved in the same amount of time.

In a statement earlier this month, Parker and Stone said, “Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of ‘South Park’ to ‘South America,’” referencing the fact that the tech companies have honored Trump’s name changes on their maps. “We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount — a Skydance Capitulation.”