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downton Abbey
More Seattle residents tuned in to premier of Downton Abbey than any other city. (PBS - AP Photo/file)

Highest viewership of Downton Abbey in Seattle

BY Tom Tangney  on January 8, 2013 @ 9:33 am (Updated: 11:52 am - 1/8/13 )

The numbers are in for the Sunday night premiere of PBS's hugely popular Downton Abbey.

Preliminary ratings show it drew almost 8 million viewers - that's four times the average PBS primetime rating.

Thanks to Downton Abbey Sunday night, PBS outrated Fox, ABC, and NBC. CBS ranked #1 with The Good Wife and The Mentalist - with 10 million viewers.

There were 100,000 tweets during the premiere

As a huge fan of the show, I am happiest about this detail in the ratings - Seattle had the highest viewership in the country Sunday night - beating out Boston (#2), Austin (#3), and New York (#4).

We here in the Pacific Northwest read more books, see more movies, and watch more Downton Abbey than anybody else.

We're just too literate for our own good, and I love it.

For the uninitiated, Downton Abbey is a kind of upstairs, downstairs show about a well-off English family (with three marriageable daughters) and its extensive roster of servants - maids, and butlers and all that, in the early years of the 20th century.

It's the brainchild of writer Julian Fellows, who won an Oscar for the screenplay of Gosford Park a few years ago.

Tom Tangney, KIRO Radio Host
Tom Tangney is co-host of KIRO Radio's Seattle's Morning News and resident enthusiast of...everything. He loves books, movies, TV, art, pop culture, politic, sports, and Husky football.
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  • Stevebo wrote...
    Just started watching Season 1 with my wife.
    January 8, 2013 11:37 am
    Friends of ours had recommended the series.

    Thus far into the show (we have only watched the first 3 episodes... so arguably, I don't have a strong leg to stand on) I'm not seeing great depth or substance.

    I'm intrigued at the social disparity between the servants and the "upper" society - and I think I'll like the show more of it explores that a bit better.

    I find myself much more interested in the interactions with the servants than I do with the family itself. The family is characteristically stuffy and fairly boring so far.

    We'll have to see how the show progresses though. We did not watch the most recent episode as we still have to finish season 1 and get into season 2 first.

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