'Downton Abbey' Season 4 Gets Air Date
PBS has announced the premiere date for the highly-anticipated fourth season of "Downton Abbey" this week.
The hit period drama series will return to PBS on January 5, according to the announcement by "Masterpiece" executive producers on Tuesday.
However, "Downton Abbey" season four is set to premiere earlier in the U.K., and American fans will have to avoid spoilers starting this fall.
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The Julian Fellowes-created series will run for eight weeks.
In the meantime, "Downtown Abbey" fans can look forward to new additions to the cast following the departures of Dan Stevens, Jessica Brown Findlay and Siobhan Finnerman.
Furthermore, season four will include the series' first black character with the introduction of Gary Carr to the cast. Tom Cullen will also be adding to the cast in the role of Lord Gillingham.
So far, the characters have been limited to Americans and Catholics, but with the introduction of the new black character, the scriptwriters seem to be looking to expand the cast and explore wider issues.
According to reports, scriptwriters will bring in a new character called Jack Ross, who will be a part of a new storyline about race relations in the 1920s.
One of the main long-running themes in the series has been the constant suspicion of outsiders by the main characters, and this new race relations storyline will plug into the same theme.
At the end of season 3 of PBS' hit series, Stevens' character Matthew Crawley had overturned his car just as he and wife Mary's son arrived.
Millions of viewers are anxiously anticipating the premiere of season four, and many "Downton" fans have taken to Twitter with their excitement on Wednesday.
"Start the countdown clock," wrote Tracy. "PBS set premiere date for Downton Abbey!"
Vanity Fair complained, "Stateside Downtown Abbey viewers to continue being tortured with delayed fourth-season airdates."
Dana added, "We have to wait until 2014?"
