The seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park was announced on May 10, 2013, that premiered on Comedy Central on September 25, 2013, and ended on December 11, 2013.
The season satirized various topics and cultural institutions including Minecraft, the George Zimmerman murder trials, the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures, and the HBO television fantasy drama, Game of Thrones.
The season received generally positive reviews, with criticism mainly aimed at the start of the season and much praise going to the Black Friday trilogy, which was hailed by IGN to be the show's best multi-arc series since the Imaginationland trilogy.
[2] Bill Hader, a former Saturday Night Live cast member, began working full-time on the show as a staff writer.
[3] Due to a power outage at the studio, episode 4 ("Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers") missed the deadline and aired a week later than scheduled.