Some info and a short description of this South Park episode on South Park Zone:
South Park - Quest for Ratings is the 122nd episode in the Comedy Central series South Park. Its original air date was November 17, 2004.
In this South Park episode, our boys from South Park are taping "Super School News", a newscast airing on South Park Elementary's television system. The boys' school news show is in competition with a rival television program created by Craig.
South Park Spoiler Alert!
(The complete plot for this South Park Episode)
Cartman, Jimmy, Butters, Kyle, Token and Stan are taping "Super School News", a newscast airing on South Park Elementary's closed-circuit television system and they are in competition against a rival television program created by Craig.Cartman and Jimmy play the leading roles as head anchors, Butters is the entertainment/celebrity reporter, Stan is a field reporter, Token is the meteorologist, and Kyle does sports. However after their news program premieres, their teacher, Mr. Meryl tells them that they did horribly in the ratings, trailing far behind Craig's home video show, "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens", which they consider pointless and banal. The news team then pledges to make a program that will be a ratings booster and gain the attention of all students. They rename the show "Sexy Action School News" and add flashy elements (in a parody of various infotainment shows), including random "Panda Madness Minutes" in which the newscasters spontaneously dance with pandas. However, nothing seems to work; although they beat Craig's original series, they fall behind his follow up "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens Wearing Hats".
To get ideas, the boys decide to get high on cough syrup. They hallucinate, run wild, pass out, and wake up disoriented an unspecified amount of time later, watching "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens Wearing Hats", but their notepads contain nothing useful. Remembering that they had seen Craig's program while high and thought it to be brilliant, they conclude that a majority of the school must be perpetually high on cough syrup, accounting for his ratings. They then decide to produce a special report that gets cough syrup banned from school.
Soon after, the ratings drop and Craig's show is cancelled, as the children are no longer high on cough syrup, and they start to cough endlessly. To emphasize the importance of good ratings, the AV teacher then suspends Craig from school.
Satisfied with their results, the "Action School News" team discovers the curse of a successful show: each subsequent episode has to be just as good. Back in the writer's room, they come up with nothing and eventually decide to just bail.