From the Daily Beast — 2/14/2012

Patton Oswalt obsessively live tweets it from his weekly viewing parties. Katy Perry is using it to distract herself from her marital woes. Roger Ebert has stepped outside the movie realm to praise it in his blog. Saturday Night Livespoofed it. Mob Wives star Big Ang Raiola recited favorite quips for Us Weekly.…

Could all of this fuss really be about a PBS show? Quite right. Masterpiece’s Emmy- and Golden Globe–winning hit, Downton Abbey, created by Julian Fellowes, a TV ratings success and cultural phenomenon, has catapulted the public-television broadcaster with the stodgy reputation to the cool kids’ table….

“There is a Downton-specific phenomenon going on,” said Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton, who also credited Sherlock with broadening Masterpiece’s audience. “People might have thought maybeMasterpiece was too refined for them, that maybe you had to have a master’s degree to enjoy it. People have come to the understanding that Masterpiece is just very well told stories with high production values and excellent acting, writing, and directing.”

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From Current.org

"Rights for Downton Abbey were believed to be caught in a heated budget dispute. But the series aired to great effect."

PBS’s ongoing negotiations to curb per-hour costs of producing programs and to assert more control over content are increasing friction with its largest producer, Boston’s powerhouse WGBH, according to sources at other stations with knowledge of the situation.

For a period until just four days before the second-season premiere of the gem of this season’s PBS schedule, Downton Abbey from Masterpiece Classic, the approval of PBS broadcast rights for the series hung in the balance as WGBH protested the network’s contract demands.

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From the Boston Globe — 1/27/2012

Alex Beam. Image from IdentityTheory.com

By any metric, “Downton’’ has hit a home run. Nationally, it has more than doubled PBS’s prime-time audience. Locally, “Downton’’ is enjoying a 5.8 rating, twice as high as “Masterpiece Classic’’ ratings last year. It is too early to know if that translates into increased memberships or pledge commitments for WGBH…

I loved the first season of “Downton,’’ with its obsessive attention to the “law of the entail,’’ which forbad the earl’s daughters from inheriting their father’s magnificent property…

Season two has a phoned-in quality; miracles occur where skillful writing might have intervened, subplots wax and wane randomly. But I am an originalist snob. I’m one of those people who can’t understand why anyone would watch NBC’s “The Office,’’ a show stolen character for character for character and situation for situation from Ricky Gervais’s much funnier British show. But what the heck, it’s television.

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From The Mail

It’s the quintessential British period drama series that has captivated and delighted its American cousins. So no one was surprised when Downton Abbey was praised for its Stateside success with a prestigious Golden Globe.

And creator Julian Fellowes beamed with pride as he and his Lord and Lady of the manor as they picked up the gong for Best Mini Series.

They were joined by executive producers Rebecca Eaton and Gareth Neame and director Brian Percival….

Bonneville believes the popularity of the period drama is down to its unpredictability as it is one of few pieces not to be adapted from a novel

Speaking backstage he said: ‘People tend to love period dramas, but this is one where you don’t know the ending, it’s not like an adaptation of a book.’

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From the New York Times — 1/02/2012

In an effort to freshen its image and lift revenue, the Public Broadcasting Service is trying to be more like HBO — without the monthly cable bill….

Emboldened by the success of the British period drama “Downton Abbey,” one of the most critically acclaimed shows on television, PBS now faces the challenge of translating the buzz and enthusiasm for the show into donations to local stations and public financing. A stodgy pledge drive or traditional pleas for contributions would probably fall flat with viewers. So, PBS decided to fit “Downton Abbey,” which begins its second season on Sunday, into a broader effort to spruce up its prime-time lineup.

“As you know, HBO has tremendous marketing and advertising muscle behind it,” said executive producer Rebecca Eaton. “When a program like ‘Downton Abbey’ wins, its because it stands on its merits.”

The goal is to attract new viewers to PBS and make audiences think of public television more like the top-tier programming of HBO, Showtime, and other channels they are willing to pay for. “Think of PBS and the local stations as premium television on the honors system,” said John Wilson, senior vice president and chief television programming executive at PBS….

“Downton Abbey,” which follows an aristocratic English family and its nosy staff at a sprawling estate on the cusp of World War I, was first shown on ITV in Britain. It slowly built an audience in the United States after critics called it a “delightful romp.” Viewers who didn’t typically watch PBS tuned in.

The first season, consisting of four 90-minute episodes, had a nightly average of 4.9 million viewers, in contrast to 1.9 million viewers on an average night on PBS stations, according to Nielsen. The number of women ages 25 to 54 who watch “Masterpiece,” which typically has an average age of 64, was up 56 percent during “Downton Abbey.” More than one million viewers, mostly from the ages of 18 to 49, streamed “Downton Abbey” on PBS.org or via Netflix.

“It was the closest thing to water-cooler television as public television gets,” said Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of Masterpiece, produced by WGBH Boston….

Originally envisioned as a mini-series, “Downton Abbey” had such success that the writer, Julian Fellowes, agreed to do additional seasons. The second season begins in 1916 and will run for seven episodes. Its September premiere in Britain averaged more than nine million viewers or roughly a 35 percent share….

PBS doesn’t expect “Downton” to immediately lead to an influx of cash, and still plans to push shows like “Nova” and “Antiques Roadshow” in prime time.

• Excerpts from the New York Times
• Image from the LA Times