And now, a few words about Downton Abbey.
PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger can't go anywhere these days without being bombarded with questions about the British series that airs on Masterpiece. Fifteen million viewers tuned in for the premiere of the recently concluded Season 5.
Has Downton Abbey had a ripple effect?
"Our audience has gone up," Kerger notes. "We are now the fifth most watched in prime time and that's not just because of Downton Abbey. It's a wonderful series, but it's [only] eight weeks in the winter on Sunday nights. Our audiences have gone up every night.
"It's important not only because it brought a lot of people to public broadcasting, but it also helped our stations believe in what we could still accomplish.
"We live in an environment with so many options and it felt like our audience would never be the size it once was. But here we have a program that has brought in the largest audience in our history. Suddenly possibilities are evident that our stations may have felt were beyond our grasp before."
How is Downton considered a typical PBS drama?
"[Other] dramas tend to be dark. The characters are complicated and compromised in many ways. The dramas that we bring forward, a lot of them are based on history or literature.
"Even Downton Abbey, which some will say is a soap opera, is a beautiful example of a project that also has educated a lot of people about a period in history. There are people who will never watch a documentary, but you can bring them in through drama."
How long can the Downton Abbey magic last?
"We're committed to another year, and when I announced it, immediately the question was, 'Well, what about the following year?' At some point it will end. Hopefully not soon. It's just such an interesting period of time. We'll see where it plays out."
The series seems to be a throwback to must-see TV.
"Downton is also a really great example of where we are in media because there are television events that people want to be a part of as they are happening. People will work very hard to be home on Sunday night to watch Downton Abbey.
"Also interesting is the number of people who talk about it on Twitter. The episode where Mary bobs her hair went everywhere. People were really talking about it.
"On the one hand, a character changing her hairstyle seems like a trivial thing, but it actually means something more. It's an obvious transition from one era to another as women are really finding their own path separate from what was dictated to them for centuries. Here Mary bobs her hair as a signal of independence."
Finally, any hints about the next big thing?
"The drama you should really look for is Wolf Hall. It's really about Thomas Cromwell.
"I remember when I was a kid and watching The Six Wives of Henry VIII on PBS with my family. For me it feels like sort of full circle.
"Damian Lewis, from Homeland, is Henry VIII, and Mark Rylance is Cromwell. The attention to detail is fantastic. They did a lot of the filming in places where Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn would have stood."
[Wolf Hall will air on Sundays, April 5 to May 10 at 9 p.m. on Masterpiece.]
-- Michael Storey
Style on 03/24/2015