The premiere of the sixth and final season of PBS and Masterpiece’s Downton Abbey drew nearly 10 million viewers and a 6.2 Iive plus same day household rating, according to Nielsen.
That’s down just a bit from the show’s season-five finale, which pulled in 10.1 million viewers. Among households, this season premiere ties with the season-four premiere as the show’s highest-rated episode to date. That also gave PBS second place for the night, behind only NBC’s high-rated Sunday Night Football, which saw the Green Bay Packers taking on the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday Night Football.
Downton Abbey is PBS’ highest-rated drama of all time.
“It’s no surprise that the final season premiere of Downton Abbey had such a large audience,” said Beth Hoppe, chief programming executive and general manager, general audience programming, PBS, in a statement. “Since Downton Abbey premiered six years ago, it’s been the show’s loyal fans who have made this show into a global phenomenon. Downton Abbey has been event viewing for each and every one of its seasons, and we’re thrilled that audiences are coming together to help give the show the send-off it deserves.”
The show also scored big audiences on social media. According to Nielsen, a Twitter TV audience of 1.4 million people saw more than 47,000 tweets during the premiere evening, generating a total of 6.1 million impressions. Downton ranked fourth on the overall Nielsen Twitter TV list for the week, behind ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, USA’s WWE Monday Night Raw and E!‘s Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
PBS and Masterpiece are helping to amp up the show’s Twitter presence, with insiders and moderators such as Tom and Lorenzo (@tomandlorenzo), Mandi Bierly of Yahoo! TV (@Mandi Bierly) and Sandra Gonzalez of Mashable (@TheSandraG) — hosting live discussions during each broadcast to connect directly with fans on social media.
This season, Masterpiece also launched a podcast talking about its shows and stars. Last week, the podcast climbed to number seven on iTunes.
[Image Courtesy of Nick Briggs/Carnival Film & Television Limited 2015 for Masterpiece]
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