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PBS Has Its Largest Audience Since the ‘Downton Abbey’ Finale

Oct 12, 2017  •  Post A Comment

A series that premiered recently on PBS looks like a hit for the broadcast service. The AP reports that approximately 13 million people saw the premiere episode of the new Ken Burns documentary “The Vietnam War,” which premiered Sept. 17.

It was the largest audience for a PBS program since the finale of the popular period drama “Downton Abbey” back in March 2016, the AP notes.

“The 18-hour documentary series produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick is another example of people experiencing television on their own terms,” the story reports. “The Nielsen company said an estimated 31 percent of TV viewers taped the premiere and watched it later, and 2 million people streamed it online.”

Nielsen has not released viewing figures for the overall series.

“PBS sought to give viewers several options for watching each episode,” the AP notes. “Every episode was repeated immediately after it first aired, and episodes were made available for streaming at the same time they were on TV. PBS is now re-airing the series in weekly installments.”

One Comment

  1. It will be very interesting to see how the series fared in later episodes. Did it hold it’s audience? I’ve heard “mixed” reviews from friends who watched it. I began to lose interest about 3 episodes in. It was obvious that Burns wanted to highlight his perceived short comings of President Nixon, but barely mentioned it was JFK who got us into the mess and LBJ who escalated the conflict. It was difficult for Burns to politicize “Baseball” but his take on the Vietnam War was quite political.

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