For the third straight year, PBS’s “Downton Abbey” was the second-highest-rated show after the Super Bowl.
PBS’ Carnival Films/Masterpiece co-production scored a 4.9 overnight rating in all viewers. That means 6.8 million viewers total, up 3 percent from the average of 6.6 million viewers it averaged against the Super Bowl last year.
Also read: Why ‘Downton Abbey’ Will Keep Airing in January in the U.S.
In the key 18-49 demographic, it had a 1.2 rating and an average audience of 1,570,000.
PBS and “Masterpiece” promoted the show with the hashtag #DramaBowlPBS rivalry, asking fans, “which team are you on?” The campaign generated 31.5 million potential impressions on Twitter and nearly 1.2 million post views on Facebook.
Traffic is up significantly for “Downton Abbey.” On Sunday, Jan. 5, a record-breaking number of unique visitors went to the “Masterpiece” site, and January 2014 vs. January 2013 had a 56 percent increase in unique visitors overall, plus a 152 percent increase in mobile visits.
Also read: ‘Downton Abbey’ Season 4 Premiere Is Highest-Rated Drama Debut in PBS History
Additionally, in January there were more than 7.1 million streams of all “Downton Abbey” content on PBS video platforms, up 14 percent from the previous January.
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