Nearly 10 million people said so-long to Downton Abbey on Sunday night. It is the most-watched finale ever for PBS’ most popular series. The swan-song’s 9.6 million viewers in Live+Same Day viewing outstrips the previous Season 5 finale of 8.4 million viewers by 14%.
“So that’s it. The TV journey for Downton has come to an emotional end, but what amazing ratings,” EP Gareth Neame said in a statement accompanying the stats.
“These six seasons of Downton Abbey have truly been a fantastic ride for all of us in the public television family,” chimed in PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger.
“American viewers, please rest assured that, even after the sun sets on Downton Abbey, Masterpiece will continue to shine on with the very best of British drama!” Masterpiece exec producer Rebecca Eaton, added, looking forward.
On Sunday, more than 25,400 people sent 66,400 tweets about Downton Abbey, yielding 7.5 million impressions, according to Nielsen. Overall, the final episode was the most tweeted episode of the season, and was the second most social program during primetime (excluding sports events and sports-related programming) ranked on unique authors/tweets. Downton Abbey, The Final Season is the most streamed season of the series with 12.4 million streams across all PBS digital platforms as of March 8. That’s 16% more total streams year-over-year compared to the same time period during Season 5, according to Google Analytics.
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