‘Downton Abbey’ season 3: PBS looking into airing series closer to UK dates

If there was one thing that was particularly remarkable about “Downton Abbey” season 2 on PBS, it was seeing that the show continued to bring in more than five million viewers on a weekly basis despite the fact that the show actually aired in the United Kingdom four months beforehand.

However, this year more than ever a problem has appeared out of this: fans in America are now hooked on the series, and can either look for alternative ways to watch it. In addition to that, Twitter is pretty much a breeding ground for spoilers, and we are now in a situation where you actually have be careful in order to avoid some of the biggest jaw-droppers that took place on season 3 earlier this fall. (We won’t share any here for those of you who are American readers, but we had our jaw on the ground a few times.)

So could these issues cause PBS to look to bumping up the show to the fall like its ITV counterpart? It is possible, but there are also a number of problems there, as well. According to The Hollywood Reporter, one obvious problem here is that PBS is worried about sticking the show on a busy fall lineup, especially a night like Sundays that already features the likes of “Homeland,” “The Walking Dead,” “Once Upon a Time,” and a number of other shows that make it such a massive programming nightmare. The only alternate solution there is either moving it to a different night of the week, or risk airing it at an earlier time.

As for another issue, you have to remember that ITV airs the show with commercials, whereas PBS does not. Either the network would have to find a way to work around this issue and institute breaks into the American broadcast, or just find a way to edit it faster so that each episode would be available faster than four months down the line. If it does end up happening, it will not be until season 4 airs in 2013.

What do you think: do you like the time that “Downton Abbey” airs in America, or do you wish that it came on a little bit closer to when it does in Britain? If you want to check out some scoop from Dan Stevens and season 4, you can do so here.

Photo: ITV