Comedy Central
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, “South Park” hosted a concert of its greatest songs live at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, on August 10. The television broadcast of the live concert will air on Saturday, August 13 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central.
If you don’t have cable, here are some different ways you can watch “South Park: The 25th Anniversary Concert” streaming online, with the first three options offering a free trial:
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FuboTV
You can watch a live stream of Comedy Central and 100-plus other TV channels on FuboTV, which comes with a seven-day free trial:
Once signed up for FuboTV, you can watch “South Park: The 25th Anniversary Concert” live on the FuboTV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One or Series X/S, Samsung TV, LG TV, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the FuboTV website.
If you can’t watch live, FuboTV comes with 250 hours of cloud DVR space, as well as a 72-hour look-back feature, which allows you to watch most shows on-demand within three days (and sometimes longer) of their conclusion, even if you don’t record them.
DirecTV Stream
DirecTV Stream has four different channel packages: “Entertainment,” “Choice,” “Ultimate” and “Premier.” Comedy Central is included in every one, but you can pick any package and any add-on you want with your free five-day trial:
Once signed up for DirecTV Stream, you can watch “South Park: The 25th Anniversary Concert” live on the DirecTV Stream app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Samsung TV, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the DirecTV Stream website.
If you can’t watch live, DirecTV Stream also comes with 20 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to unlimited hours).
Philo TV
You can watch a live stream of Comedy Central and 60-plus other TV channels on Philo TV, which comes with a seven-day free trial:
Once signed up for Philo, you can watch “South Park: The 25th Anniversary Concert” live on the Philo app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast (compatible on Android mobile), any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. You can also watch on your computer on the Philo website.
If you can’t watch live, Philo allows you to DVR programs and watch them up to 30 days later. And even if you forget to DVR something, Philo also comes with a 72-hour rewind feature, which lets you to watch most shows on-demand if they have aired in the last three days.
Sling TV
You can watch a live stream of Comedy Central and 30-plus other TV channels via Sling TV’s “Sling Orange” or “Sling Blue” package. This option doesn’t include a free trial, but you can get your first month half off:
Once signed up for Sling TV, you can watch “South Park: The 25th Anniversary Concert” live on the Sling TV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One or Series X/S, Samsung TV, LG TV, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), airTV Mini, Oculus, Portal, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the Sling TV website.
If you can’t watch live, Sling TV comes included with 50 hours of cloud DVR.
‘South Park: The 25th Anniversary Concert’ Preview
The “South Park” 25th anniversary concert will air on Comedy Central 25 years to the date and time of the series premiere in 1997. The concert aims to celebrate “the 25th anniversary of the renowned franchise with iconic songs from the historic series,” according to the Comedy Central press release.
It continues:
Filmed in Colorado at the renowned Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, the concert celebrates the essential role music has played in the series since its debut 25 years ago. Joined by Primus and Ween, Parker and Stone will perform many fan favorites. Primus and Ween will also collaborate with their own songs in honor of their long-standing relationship with “South Park.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times tied to the anniversary concert, Primus bassist and vocalist Les Claypool, who is the man behind the theme song for the show, said that they thought the short film that they did that laid the foundation for “South Park” was “very cool,” but they “never thought it was gonna get on television, let alone become a worldwide phenomenon.”
“It’s a wonderful thing to see these guys — who we never thought they would ever get on television — come in and basically change the world of comedy,” Claypool continued. “To still exist after 25 years is a major accomplishment. But to still be relevant after 25 years? That’s epic.”
In recent years, “South Park” has gotten to do some hourlong specials in lieu of full seasons due to the production challenges of the pandemic. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker told the LA Times that that was creatively freeing but also came with its own set of challenges.
“I think it cuts both ways. I really like the ‘Pandemic Special’ and the ‘Vaccination Special.’ Like a lot of people, we had to go fully remote, so we had to come up with a new production process, and that was pretty painful. The longer ones are sometimes really satisfying because Trey gets to write stuff that breathes a little more,” said Stone. “But then, we just went back to do our first series of six regular 22-minute shows after the pandemic, and I thought they were really great. It’s almost like going back to our roots. It’s like a pop song that’s gotta be three minutes. These last hourlong specials we did were hard. We had a hard time finding our groove.”
Parker added, “After we had done some specials and we went back to the regular season, it was definitely like, ‘Holy s***.’ They felt so fast. And it felt like, ‘Dude, we’ve already got 15 minutes but we’ve got to finish this story.’ It was nice to go back to that, but it was also definitely jarring.”
They also admitted that the closest they ever came to ending the show was because of the pandemic.
Parker said:
It was the first few months of the pandemic, and it was the first time we were going “Oh wow, maybe that’s just it.” Matt was the first one to say, “This thing’s gonna go on a long time. Let’s just start figuring out how to do it from home.”
Not a lot of people know that we were a day away from starting production on the first feature movie we had done since “Team America: World Police.” We were going to start shooting on the day that the pandemic shut everything down. It was months and months of getting ready for that movie, to just being like, “Nope, it’s over.”
I went to the office to start packing up my things because I was just kind of in shock. There was a few weeks of just depression, and then I just got happy ‘cause I’m like, “I’m just gonna hang out with my daughter and watch ‘Harry Potter’ and build Legos.” And then Matt said, “Let’s go remote.”
The “South Park” 25th anniversary concert airs Saturday, August 13 at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times on Comedy Central.