Names and faces

Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch will return to public TV in January, keeping company on Sunday nights with the Downton Abbey crowd. Season three of the modern Sherlock Holmes mystery series will begin Jan. 19, PBS said Wednesday. It was previously announced that the fourth season of Downton will begin Jan 5. The scheduling reflects PBS’ new strategy of pairing dramas on Sunday, part of a broader effort to build “flow within a given night in our schedule,” said Beth Hoppe, PBS’ chief programming executive. Prime-time viewership on Sunday, home to primarily British dramas, grew 26 percent last season with the new approach, Hoppe said, and Sherlock and Downton Abbey were seen as good partners. Overall, PBS’ prime-time ratings were up 7 percent last season compared to the year before, Hoppe said. Downton Abbey, the hit drama about the lives and loves of landed gentry and their servants, will be preceded by a Dec. 1 special, Return to Downton Abbey. Hosted by Susan Sarandon, it will offer a look at past seasons and a peek at the one ahead. As in the past, the drama’s new season already is in progress on Britain’s ITV. PBS has resisted timing the U.S. to the U.K. airings, saying the January debut works better for its schedule - a move that’s allowed spoilers to cross the Atlantic. But PBS relented with BBC’s Sherlock, which is scheduled closer to its yet-to-be announced British airing, Hoppe said. Other returning U.K. dramas include Call the Midwife and Mr. Selfridge starring Jeremy Piven, both debuting Sunday, March 30, and The Bletchley Circle on April 13.

George Clooney’s World War II drama The Monuments Men is being pushed to 2014 and out of the fall awards season. A spokesman for Sony Pictures said Wednesday that the film will now be released in the first quarter of next year, instead of its planned release date of Dec. 18. The Monuments Men, which Clooney directed, co-wrote and stars in, had been expected to be a top Oscar contender. The film could still compete for awards next year, but the early-in-the-year positioning suggests Sony doesn’t expect it to. Sony said the film is being delayed so Clooney can finish the film’s extensive visual effects. The film is about a WWII platoon whose mission is to rescue artworks from the Nazis. The Los Angeles Times first reported the release date change.