‘Downton Abbey’ season 4 notes: Maggie Smith and … Simon Cowell?

For this Friday edition of “Downton Abbey” notes, we’re looking at a pair of stories that cover anything and everything, whether it be another honor being potentially handed to Maggie Smith, or reported attempts by none other than Simon Cowell to launch a series comparable to the ITV hit over on a rival network (which is ironic in itself, since most of the music mogul’s work also airs on ITV).

Let’s start first of all with Smith, who is up this year for one of Logo TV’s “NewNowNext” Awards. The interesting thing about this particular nomination is that it is in the field of Foreign Import of the Year, and the nominees really couldn’t be any more different considering that Nicholas Hoult, One Direction, and Benedict Cumberbatch of “Sherlock” were also all included on the list. Luckily, you don’t have to travel anywhere else at all to vote: you can do it right here!

Sadly for Logo, we don’t think that Maggie would attend the ceremony, as she did not even attend her last win at the Primetime Emmy Awards. She’s going to be busy filming season 4 of the hit for the next few months, and who knows what lies ahead for the Dowager?

 

As for Simon Cowell, The Mirror is reporting that the “X Factor” creator is in the process of sending a drama series to BBC One that will focus on the Victorian-era asylum Broadmoor. Basically, you could think of this as a combination of “Downton Abbey” and “American Horror Story” minus all the supernatural stuff, and it is based off of the Mark Stevens book Broadmoor Revealed: Victorian Crime And The Lunatic Asylum.

This is hardly the first British period drama to be launched following the success of “Downton Abbey,” especially since PBS is now trying to launch new series such as “Mr. Selfridge” and “Call the Midwife” as though they are reincarnations of the Julian Fellowes hit.

If you want to read some more “Downton Abbey” stories pertaining to Jessica Brown Findlay and Hugh Bonneville, you can do so over here.

Photo: ITV