Downton Abbey's fourth season hasn't even begun in the United States, but PBS is already looking ahead to the fifth. The British series was officially renewed for a fifth season on Sunday.
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After nearly two years, Sherlock will return to PBS on Jan. 19 at 10/9c following Downton Abbey, Entertainment Weekly reports.
"We are hugely excited about this next series of Sherlock, and have worked closely with our partners, Masterpiece and PBS, to bring these episodes to U.S. audiences in January. We promise our fans that Season 3 is worth waiting for," said executive producer Sue Vertue.
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With Downton Abbey killing off two of my favorite characters — Lady Sybil and Matthew Crawley — is it possible their surviving spouses could find love with one another? — Emma, New Orleans
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The second-season return of Smash on Feb. 5 was always going to be a tough sell. But ABC's decision to schedule a last-minute special Tuesday-night edition of The Bachelor against it helped to crush NBC's musical drama, which attracted just 4.5 million viewers. Meanwhile, Sean Lowe and his roses brought in 7.9 million.
In this age of time-shifted and on-demand viewing, TV network scheduling seems like an antiquated idea. Yet as the networks fight over smaller pieces of the Nielsen ratings pie, scheduling — and the strategy behind how and when programs run — continues to play a critical role.
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TV viewers have never had it so good — or maybe they have it too good. There's never been more original programming to navigate than at this very moment. Take Sunday nights: Even with the NFL season over, viewing options include The Good Wife (CBS), The Walking Dead (back Feb. 10 on AMC), Girls (HBO), Shameless (Showtime), Downton Abbey (PBS), Family Guy (Fox), Revenge (ABC) and Kourtney and Kim Take Miami (E!). And that's just in one timeslot: 9/8c.
That's a lot of DVR space being filled up week in and week out with must-see shows. "There's definitely more programming that I'm interested in watching than I can actually consume," says Showtime Entertainment president David Nevins.
According to FX Networks president John Landgraf, there were just 35 scripted shows on cable when The Shield premiered 11 years ago; now that number is up to...
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