Weekend update! Not every TV program this weekend involved footballs or puppies: Three fun dramas had big episodes, including a Super Bowl vs. Crawleys face-off.
First, PBS’ Downton Abbey down-trended in the ratings from last week, but still managed 6.8 million viewers Sunday night. That ranked Downton second among broadcast shows at 9 p.m. vs. none other than the Super Bowl. This marked the third year in a row the show has been #2 in that slot against the big game.
Meanwhile PBS’ cult fav Sherlock was pretty much the same as last week for its season 3 finale, delivering 3 million viewers. Farewell for another two years?
And Saturday night, the pivotal second episode of Starz’ Black Sails gave the premium cable network some welcome news — 93 percent of viewers stuck around for the second weekend with the pirate drama delivering 2.3 million viewers. Given that the Super Bowl was keeping 111 million viewers distracted on Sunday, it’s perhaps more telling that the debut airing of Black Sails Ep. 2 on Saturday retained an even higher 99 percent of its audience from last week. Meanwhile, the first episode of Black Sails is now up to 6 million viewers across all of Starz’ platforms.
