‘Downton Abbey’ season 6 ratings down despite big Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter premiere

We had a sinking feeling that “Downton Abbey” was going to premiere on Sunday to lower ratings. Just think about it: The show seemed to really peak during season 4, and we started to feel like if the show, at least in Britain, wanted to end on the highest possible note, it would have come to a close last Christmas. That didn’t happen, and it now has to prepare for potentially going out with a little less of a roar. We wouldn’t call it a whimper, but this is not going to be the same gigantic series finale the show could’ve once had.

Despite having some big storylines for Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Mr. Carson (Jim Carter), two of the series’ most-popular characters, the show started with a viewing audience of 7.6 million. That is down 800,000 from the season 5 premiere audience, and almost two million from the season 4 premiere, when a staggering 9.5 million tuned in to see what happened following Matthew’s death.

Ultimately, we do consider still all of these numbers rather impressive when you remember that this show still garners a huge audience share in Great Britain, and if there was any American series that performed similarly, it would be considered here the biggest hit in all TV. Britain is just starting to catch up to the United States when it comes to having many more programming options, and also inventions like the DVR that make watching live less of a priority. If you can record “Downton Abbey” and skip the ads, why wouldn’t you? That seems to be the argument for many.

We’ll still track the ratings the remainder of the season; meanwhile, season 6 is going to premiere in America this January.

If you are interested in seeing our review of the season 6 premiere, you can see that over at the link here! Also, you can sign up now in the event you want to get some further TV news sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ITV.)