Fresh on the heels of the BBC announcement that there will be a 5th series of Call the Midwife comes the brilliant news from PBS and ITV that there will, indeed, be a 6th series of Downton Abbey. As the finale of series 5 is set for this Sunday on ITV in the UK (rest assured, there will still be a Christmas special this year), American audiences can go to bed tonight with the full knowledge that come January 4, 2015 (the premiere of series 5 on PBS) there will be another series to look forward to in 2016!
 

As per shooting schedules for past series, principle filming will begin around February 2015. If one had to guess, UK audiences can look forward to a series 6 premiere sometime in September 2015 with a January 2016 start on PBS in America. Obviously, more questions than answers at this point, but it has been confirmed that Sir Julian Fellowes will again pen the forthcoming series but no word yet given the finale of series 5 has yet to air as to who will return both upstairs and downstairs to Downton.

While the Dowager Countess make still be asking “What is a weekend?, the worldwide audience for Downton Abbey can easily answer that with the fact that this ‘weekend’ is for celebrating that their favorite British period drama will return in 2016!