Season 4 premiere is the highest rated drama in PBS history

Jan 7, 2014 07:30 GMT  ·  By

It looks like tuning in to watch “Downton Abbey” right after the holidays is turning into quite a tradition for Americans. The premiere for the forth season of the British drama has broken the previous ratings record on Sunday night.

It's been estimated that 10.2 million people tuned in to watch “Downton Abbey” on its return to the screen for the fourth season, a 22% increase from the previous season that brought in 7.3 million viewers.

The PBS CEOs were obviously pleased with the numbers and with the popularity the show is garnering at the moment.

“I'm so pleased that millions of viewers have returned to Downton Abbey on their local PBS stations for what has become a post-holiday tradition,” Paul Kerger, PBS President, said in a statement.

Since the series has already completed its run in native Britain, it was believed that spoilers would be a major issue, but the network's management decided against moving up the release date. It looks as though they made the right decision in judging the series' popularity right after the holidays.

For fans of the series, the good news is that “Downton Abbey” has just been renewed for a fifth season. However, word on the future of the drama after that remains sketchy. It looks as though its creators don't want to prolong its life indefinitely.