PBS continues to dominate on Sunday night with ratings for Downton Abbey and Sherlock.
Downton Abbey pulled in 13.2 million viewers. This number cemented the series status as PBS’ highest-rated drama in history. This rating is up from 11.5 million for Season 3. Downton Abbey continues to break records with its fourth season with an average household rating of 8.5 and 26 million viewers tuning in over the course of the season. The series had more than 280,000 tweets and over 35.6 million impressions, according to Social Guide Intelligence, on Sunday nights.
“We are thrilled that American audiences continue to be entertained by the Crawley family and their servants,” said Gareth Neame, Downton Abbey executive producer. “We’re incredibly proud that our British show is one of the highest rated shows in the U.S., with ratings growing across the first four seasons, and delighted for our friends at Masterpiece and PBS that the show has garnered such an impressive result for them.”
Sherlock averaged an audience of 6.6 million viewers, a 50 percent increase, in the new 10 p.m. timeslot. The series averaged 4.4 million viewers in Season 2. The series received a household rating of 4.1 increasing 46 percent from season 2. The total viewers reached were 13.5 million, increasing from 10.7 million in 2012.
“The pairing of Downton Abbey and Sherlock was a winning blueprint this year, helping both series reach record audiences on PBS member stations,” said Beth Hoppe, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming for PBS. “British drama lovers have even more to look forward to this spring with new seasons of fan-favorite series returning to their local stations.”
The ratings for PBS stations were up 30 percent since the 2012-2013 Season. British dramas will continue through the spring with Call the Midwife, Masterpiece Mr. Selfridge and The Bletchley Circle.