​PBS, the public broadcaster with a reputation for importing British dramas, revealed Monday that it won’t be jumping across the pond for its next scripted series.

For the first time in about a decade, PBS will produce its own original drama series—an untitled Civil War drama from Ridley Scott. The six-episode series will feature the lives of wartime nurses in Virginia.

“Our goal is not only to entertain, but to educate and inspire,” said PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger Monday at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena.

Kerger said that the project is “a really big deal for us.” The Civil War itself remains the source of the most-watched program in the history of public broadcasting.

Ken Burns’ The Civil War nine-part series lured 40 million viewers when it first aired back in 1990. Kerger positioned Monday’s announcement by tying the new series explicitly to the legacy of the show’s earlier success.

“Being able to tie back to that great story and reinterpret a piece of that through a drama is absolutely perfect,” she said.

As for those British dramas, Kerger refused to discuss the future of hit import Downton Abbey beyond the sixth season, which will premiere in January 2016. Whispers about the future of the series grew louder after NBC’s appearance at the TCA press tour last week when NBC Entertainment President Robert Greenblatt said that Gilded Age, the long-awaited project from Downton creator and writer Julian Fellowes, is moving forward at the Peacock network.

That series, set amidst the wealthy families of late 19th Century New York, could leave Fellowes with little time for Downton, calling into question whether it would continue.

Kerger was tight-lipped on Monday when asked if there were concerns about PBS that the NBC series would affect Downton‘s future.

“Nope, we’re planning on season six,” she responded. There was no mention of any seasons beyond that one.

Kerger also touched on how evolving viewership habits are affecting the public broadcaster.

With such a heavy reliance on imports—and a patchwork of member stations across the U.S.—PBS is at a particular disadvantage when it comes to keeping viewers in-house to stream and binge-watch episodes.

“We’re wrestling with stations now on what’s the best way to deliver content,” she said. “It is a little challenging. We want a common window for all our content, digitally, but we can’t quite get there.”

Kerger pointed to big linear numbers for this September’s Ken Burns doc The Roosevelts (33 million viewers in one week) as evidence that there is still a big interest in “collective viewing.”

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