Some changes are being made over at South Park.  Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker recently revealed that, instead of splitting each season into two halves of 7 episodes that air in the spring and fall, the upcoming 17th season will air as one batch of 10 episodes.  Though the change reduces the episode number from 14 per season to 10, the creators said that this allows them more time to devote to other things rather than having to work on South Park for two grueling, separate batches of 7 weeks out of the year.  Hit the jump for more from Stone and Parker regarding the future of South Park and how it fits in with the current television landscape.

After 16 years of South Park and winning nine Tony Awards for The Book of Mormon, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are starting their own production company.  The New York Times reports that the $300 million company, Important Studios, “will have the power and money to approve television, movie and theater projects, including a big-screen version of The Book of Mormon.”  Stone says he hopes DreamWorks or Lucasfilm will serve as a model, but then explained, “In some ways it’s a stupid comparison because they are gargantuan.  We want to be a smaller, more humble version of that.”

Hit the jump for more.

In terms of video games, nothing in the Christmas season really caught my eye even though that’s when companies push out their biggest titles of the year.  Instead, I’m looking to Q1 and Q2 of 2013 for my video game fix.  In January, I’m getting Ni No Kuni (a game co-developed with Studio Ghibli), Bioshock Infinite in March, and in May it’s South Park: The Stick of Truth.  While most South Park games have been forgettable, this is the one to keep an eye on.  Developed by Obsidian Entertainment (Fallout: New Vegas) and written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, you can see from this new trailer that the game looks terrific.  Not only does it look hilarious, but it’s an RPG with what looks to be turn-based combat, so I’m pretty much sold.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  South Park: The Stick of Truth is due out on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC on May 14, 2013.

Ratings were down pretty much across the board last night, as families were out Trick or Treating instead of watching television.  Here’s a look at the highlights:

• FX’s American Horror Story: Asylum topped all cable programming with a 1.5 rating, which is down a tad from last week’s 1.7.
• The CW’s drama Supernatural was the only program to actually gain viewers last night, as the episode drew a 0.9 rating and 2.1 million viewers versus last week’s 0.7.
• Literally every other program was down or even in viewership from the previous original episodes.

Hit the jump for the full ratings report for Wednesday, October 31st, including 30 Rock, Nashville, Arrow, Modern Family, Criminal Minds, and more.

The Fall 2012 TV season began in earnest this week, with most shows having their series/season premieres.  Here’s a brief glance at the highlights:

• CBS’ Sherlock Holmes update Elementary debuted strong with a 3.1 rating in the 18-49 demo for 13.41 million viewers.
• Also at CBS, The Big Bang Theory scored its highest rated season premiere ever with a 5.0 rating and a solid 15.66 million viewers.
• Things weren’t all rosy at The Eye, however, as Hawaii Five-0 was way down with a 1.8 rating.  That’s a significant drop from last year’s season premiere rating of 3.4 in the coveted 18-49 demo.
• NBC’s J.J. Abrams-produced drama Revolution saw an unsurprising drop in viewers from last week’s season premiere, though the 3.4 rating with 9.21 million viewers shows a healthy hold from last week’s 4.1 rating.
• Unfortunately, ABC’s excellent pilot for Last Resort debuted to a slightly disappointing 2.2 rating with 9.31 million viewers.

Hit the jump for the TV ratings for the week of September 23 – 29, including New Girl, Parks and Recreation, Grimm, Fringe, South Park, Sons of Anarchy, Castle, and much more.

The most surprising thing about The Book of Mormon is just how undeniably sweet it is. Sure, Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s Broadway, Tony Award-winning musical has more than its fair share of pointed jabs at Mormons and AIDS and Ugandan warlords – but underneath all the irreverence lays a really warm-hearted story about the importance of storytelling. Because ultimately that’s what religions are: stories. Stories about a guy on a cross or a guy who parts the sea or a guy who digs up a number of golden plates.  Stories – The Book of Mormon advocates – bring communities together and guide people to higher moral truths. Of course stories are fictional – but that’s almost a non-point in the show. Whether or not Joseph Smith spoke to God is irrelevant – it’s the people he brought together with his tales and the hope and inspiration they provide that give Mormonism (and all religions and all stories) their own worth.

After the show here in Los Anegles, Trey Parker and Matt Stone participated in a group Q&A with select press. For highlights from the conversation – which included thoughts on a potential movie adaptation, the likelihood of them doing another stage musical and the troubles of getting old – hit the jump.

For the fifteenth season of South Park, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were coming off of the opening of their Broadway show The Book of Mormon, which was a huge hit. And when they went into their summer hiatus of that season with a cliffhanger episode that showed a huge shift in the characters, there was a sense that they might be done with the show. After all, the two had been doing it for so long, and – as with almost every season – their hit to miss ratio has always been noticeable. They had no intention of quitting, however, and we’re going to keep getting South Park. Sometimes they’re great, sometimes they’re one-note, but most episodes offer a number of big laughs. Our review of the Fifteenth Season of South Park on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

Comedy Central just sent over their premiere dates for the 2011-2012 midseason, and while most of their series don’t usually show up around this time, South Park will be making its triumphant return for a sixteenth season on March 14th while Tosh.0 will come back with fresh meat from the internet on January 31st, marking its fourth season. However, the real exciting news is that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report will come back right after the New Year on January 3rd to really start digging into their Indecision 2012 coverage in this election year.

Cable’s longest running animated series will last even longer as Comedy Central just announced that South Park has been renewed for three more seasons, which will take the series into their milestone 20th season. And as if it needs to be pointed out, series creators, writers, directors and stars Trey Parker and Matt Stone will continue to be at the helm of every single episode. The duo contributed a quick quote of standard publicity fluff saying, “Comedy Central has been our home for 15 years and we love working there. South Park is a blast and we can’t wait to make more.” The show continues to be topical, irreverent and smart in its comedy, and it’s good to hear that we’ve secured another few years with Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny. Hit the jump to check out the press release.

It’s no secret that a lot of work goes into an episode of an animated series, but when it comes to Comedy Central’s long-running series South Park, you might be shocked to learn that each episodes is completed in just under one week. This explains how the series from longtime collaborator Trey Parker and Matt Stone remains so topical and relevant every single week, but it also means that when South Park is in production, the pressure is on to deliver, just like an episode of Saturday Night Live. Perhaps that explains why someone like SNL cast member Bill Hader is on the writing staff and makes several appearances in this promising new documentary 6 Days to Air which will premiere on Comedy Central on October 9th.

Despite the obvious stress of putting together a half-hour animated comedy in just a week, Parker and Stone seem to be enjoying themselves immensely and always make time to joke around. Other highlights include a professional sounding conversation about characters shitting into each other’s mouths and someone farting into the PA system at the South Park offices. The new season of South Park premieres October 5th at 10/9c, but see the trailer for what looks to be an eye-opening look behind-the-scenes of the series after the jump.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are riding pretty high these days with their insanely successful Broadway show The Book Of Mormon piling up profits and Tonys. As a result, Comedy Central is keen to remind everyone that the comedy geniuses still have an animated series on their network and are planning to air a big retrospective documentary about the making of South Park this fall. Given the fact that the guys run an entire studio dedicated to South Park on the opposite end of the country, it should be pretty interesting. Hit the jump for more details on the upcoming doc.

Lest you thought that the bleak finale of the first half of season 15 this past May meant the end of South Park, the show has been renewed for two more seasons keeping the series on Comedy Central through 2013. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone ended the first half of this season with a bit of a downer episode focusing on Stan’s cynicism ruining his friendships while his parents complained about the repetitiveness of their marriage in what some saw as a not-so-thinly-veiled metaphor for the Parker and Stone’s exhaustion with the series.

However, the two quickly put rumors of the show’s end to rest as they reassured audiences that they wanted to continue with the series while appearing on The Daily Show, and now EW confirms that the Parker and Stone are signed on through 2013. The new order will bring the total number of seasons up to 17, with the second half of season 15 kicking off on October 5th with seven new episodes.

We’re fifteen seasons in on South Park, and the show has fallen into a comfortable groove. Matt Stone and Trey Parker went through some rough periods, but they have a system now: Generally there’s going to be some (very) topical episodes, some character episodes with many of those paired to something going on in pop culture, and now a number of multi-episode arcs that tend to fall back on fantasy or science fiction. And – though they sometimes get into beating up on things that may not deserve it or go too hard on something self-evident – the show delivers the laughs. Our review of the Blu-ray of South Park: The Complete Fourteenth Season on Blu-ray is after the jump.

Over the last week, we’ve been posting parts of my exclusive interview with Bill Hader (how he’s a writer on South Park, updates on The Hand Job and other future projects, and SNL).  The reason I got to speak with this very talented comedian is that he has a supporting role in director Greg Mottola’s Paul – which stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.  In the film, Hader plays a Federal Agent who is tasked with helping to locate Paul.

During our extended interview, Hader talked about working with Pegg and Frost, how much was in the script and how much was improv, how Mottola told him to prepare for the film, filming on a very famous street in New Mexico, and a lot more on making Paul.  Hit the jump for the interview and remember to see Paul this weekend!

Anyone who has seen Bill Hader on Saturday Night Live or his supporting work in films like Superbad and Adventureland knows he’s hilarious.  But did you know that Hader also writes for South Park?  I did not and now I do and I think we’re all better for the experience.

Steve recently interviewed Hader (who’s doing press for Paul) and asked how he came to be credited as a creative consultant on season 12.  Hader explains how the writing behind the show works and that he’s still on board as a consulting writer and will be going on a three-week retreat in April where showrunners Trey Parker and Matt Stone hash out their ideas.  For those curious as to how the South Park machine works, hit the jump.  The 15th season of South Park premieres Wednesday, April 27th at 10pm on Comedy Central.  You can expect Steve’s full interview with Hader this week.