PBS prepares for 'Downton Abbey' departure

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – PBS is getting ready to say goodbye to Downton Abbey.

The public television service’s biggest audience hit launches its final season Jan. 3, preceded two days earlier by “a Downton Abbey-themed” float at the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., PBS President Paula Kerger said Saturday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. The show premieres in the fall in the United Kingdom.

“It’s gotten more people to watch public television again," Kerger said. "It’s a multi-generational series. People watch it together.”

She said she doesn’t believe Downton will be the last great drama on PBS. “No one thought before Downton hit that there would be another great drama of its kind,” she said. “Hopefully, there will be another Downton around the corner.”

She also praised the performances of Call the Midwife, Poldark and Last Tango in Halifax.

As Downton celebrates its final season, PBS will launch Mercy Street, its first American-based drama in more than a decade, on Jan. 17.

The six-episode drama, based on true events, focuses on an Alexandria, Va., private home that is seized and turned into a hospital during the Civil War. The cast features Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Josh Radnor, Gary Cole and Norbert Leo Butz.

Kerger said it combines elements of history, with “the Civil War and the evolution of modern medicine coalescing, creating the opportunity to tell a powerful story.”

On another programming front, Kerger was asked about the future of Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s genealogy series, Finding Your Roots, which faced criticism after leaked e-mails revealed that an episode omitted references to one of Ben Affleck’s ancestors who was a slave owner. PBS said the incident violated its standards.

Kerger said she hopes to bring back the series for a third season, but that it must “ensure they have the right processes in place” to meet standards of quality, accuracy and authenticity and and to prevent such an occurrence from happening again. Some work has been done on a third season of the show, which has moved from producing partner WNET in New York to WETA in Washington, D.C.

She said she doesn’t believe the incident has tarnished PBS, but called “the whole thing very unfortunate” and that learning of it via leaked e-mails “was the most unfortunate thing of all.”

In family programming, Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle, a feature-length film featuring the voices of Angela Bassett and John Goodman, premieres Aug. 17. New episodes of pre-school series Super Why! premiere the same day.