You might want to pull up a chair and grab a cup of tea for this big TV news. The PBS Masterpiece theater hit Downton Abbey has been renewed for Season 6 by co-producers Carnival Films, a division of NBCUniversal International Television Production, and Masterpiece before the current season has premiered here in the U.S.
The big Downton Abbey renewal comes just days ahead of the Season 5 finale’s premiere in the United Kingdom where fans on the other side of the pond patiently await to see what happens. As has been the pattern with each season of the heralded show, the Season 5 premiere date in the U.S. is not until early January, or more specifically, January 4, 2015. Expect the Season 6 stateside premiere date to land on our shores in January, 2016.
“Good news!,” wrote PBS Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton in today’s press announcement. “Just as our audience settles in for the beloved Crawley family drama, we can announce that Season 6 will arrive a year later. How lucky can you get?”
The Season 4 finale of Downton Abbey scored 8.5 million viewers when it premiered in the U.S. this past February. That marked an increase of approximately 300,000 viewers over the Season 3 finale a year prior. Over the eight-episode season, the period drama averaged 8.3 million viewers per episode.
Production on Downton Abbey Season 6 will commence in 2015.
