Rose Parade 2016: ‘Downton Abbey’ gets its own float (with Elizabeth McGovern) to promote season 6

The sixth and final season of “Downton Abbey” is premiering on PBS Sunday night, and clearly the network and its Masterpiece arm wanted to go through all the stops in order to properly promote it. How else do you explain a float created specifically for this purpose?

Having promotional floats at the Rose Parade is something that has become more common for TV networks over the years, and this float specifically won an award for its use of roses. There was also a recreation of Abbey itself (in real life, this is Highclere Castle) that was rather impressive, and there was even a star of the show waving to the crowd! This was none other than Lady Cora herself in Elizabeth McGovern, who has quite an important eight episodes ahead for herself.

What are the ratings going to be for “Downton” in America? We’re still rather curious to learn about that, given that the show did have solid figures in the United Kingdom this past fall. It also won the Christmas ratings battle. There have been those out there who have criticized the long layoff between when the show airs on ITV and when it premieres in America, but it hasn’t made a huge difference when it comes to the people watching.

This is not the only show-sponsored float that we expect to appear in the Rose Parade over the course of the day; you should also be prepared to see a parade that is brought up and promoted by the folks over at “The Bachelor.” Not only that, but its star in Ben Higgins will be making an appearance!