One of the unique aspects of South Park - now in its 17th season - is the show's production model. Unlike other animated shows that can take a dedicated team months to produce a single episode, a South Park episode's production schedule is only one-week long.

Initial ideas are proposed on a Thursday, with the final episode broadcast in the US on a Wednesday night, with team members said to routinely work over 100 hours to complete an episode. Along with computers allowing quick animation of the show's famously simple art style, the challenging conditions allow the creative team to reflect current news, with episodes regularly referring to important events from the preceding week. Episodes are sent to Comedy Central by satellite link, often reaching the station for review mere hours before broadcast.

A documentary called Six Days to Air: The Making of South Park detailed one episode's intense production.

This has proven a surprisingly effective model for a majority of the show's history, but this week marks the first time Stone and Parker have failed to meet their tight deadline. On Tuesday the South Park Studios suffered a power outage, shutting down the team's computers. This meant that animation, rendering, sound and other tasks could not be completed on time, and forced the delay of the episode - entitled Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers - until the following week.

Parker explains "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." Instead of the new episode, Comedy Central instead showed a repeat of one of the show's most infamous episodes Scott Tenorman Must Die!, with live tweets being shown alongside the episode.

(Image: South Park Studios)