‘Downton Abbey’ season 3: Now down a tick, but still strong

If there was one thing that American TV needs to learn from their friends across the pond, it is how to attract audiences the same way that British TV does on a week in, week out basis.

What’s the prime example of this? Just look at what happened this weekend. For its peak? The latest episode of “The X Factor” from London drew a peak audience of 11.4 million viewers, which is higher than any other episode this season. Not only that, but the series actually had more overall viewers than its counterpart here in the United States.

As for our favorite drama series from across the pond, “Downton Abbey” ended up drawing an average of 9.6 million viewers for its latest episode that featured the likes of Bates and Anna shedding a few tears over some letters that were being withheld from them. Plus, there was also all sorts of other interesting character moments for Edith, Matthew, and Tom. This was down from the episode that aired the week prior, but it’s still hard to say that local network ITV would be upset with these numbers at all. There are very few shows in America that fare better this, especially ones that are serialized in nature rather than just some case-of-the-week drama a la “NCIS” or “Criminal Minds.” If the show keeps these numbers up the rest of the season, then PBS has something to look forward to early next year when the show airs in America.

Are you still enjoying this season, and do you share our view that this may have been one of the strongest episodes of the entire series just far?