‘Downton Abbey’ third season scores big ratings

The third season of ‘Downton Abbey’ premiered on Sunday night, and the sky-high ratings suggest that fans haven’t tired of the soapy period piece.

Approximately 8.6 million viewers tuned into to ITV1, the network that airs ‘Downton Abbey’ in Britain, to watch Shirley MacLaine make her first appearance as Martha Levinson, the wealthy American mother of Lady Cora (Elizabeth McGovern). Those numbers would be impressive anywhere, but they’re even more dazzling given the much smaller size of the British television audience.

To put the ratings in perspective, about 34.5 per cent of the country’s TV audience was tuned in to ‘Downton Abbey’ on Sunday night. Ratings were down ever so slightly — about 200,000 viewers — compared with last season’s premiere, but this may have had something to do with declining viewership for the show’s lead-in, Simon Cowell’s ‘The X Factor’. UAE viewers (or at least those with a healthy respect for international copyright laws) will have to make do by watching one of the many Season 3 trailers posted online. The show will premiere in the UAE early next year.