‘Downton Abbey’ season 5 finale: Despite Joanne Froggatt – Brendan Coyle shock, ratings down

The great news that came in for the “Downton Abbey” finale Sunday is pretty simple: The ITV series proved that they can still surprise us, which is something that they very rarely did during a lackluster fourth season.

However, we also had further proof that the show may not have been able to fully recover from that. (Spoilers ahead for Americans!) The ratings are in, and it drew just under 8.3 million viewers in the United Kingdom. In some ways, that’s still remarkable. Any show should be thrilled to get this much of a share of the British public.

However, it was also the lowest-rated finale in the history of the show, which was not even a big deal until the first season really came to a close. These ratings came even after a big storyline was hyped for Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and Bates (Brendan Coyle), otherwise known as the two people on this show who absolutely cannot get a break regardless of however hard they may try.

Ultimately, there is still no reason to be concerned about the series’ immediate future, given that it has already been renewed for an all-important sixth season. With that being said, we have also campaigned that this should be considered the last season of the show, since it would give it a chance to really go out with a bang. Also, one of the joys of British television is that other than their soaps, they tend to not drag on most of their shows to the point that they suffer a slow death. Look at the original “Office.”

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