The long-awaited season four premiere of “Downton Abbey” on PBS did not disappoint in the ratings — with a record 10.2 million viewers tuning in for its two-hour return on Sunday.
That was two million more viewers than watched the British costume drama’s third season finale — itself a record — to rank as the highest rated drama debut in PBS history, according to Nielsen.
The episode — which picked up with the Crawley family six months after the tragic death of Matthew (Dan Stevens) by car accident — improved 22 percent over its third season average and 29 percent from its last season premiere.
“Downton Abbey” beat all of its broadcast competition in its time period, including “The Good Wife” (9.2 million viewers) and “Revenge” (6.7 million).
The drama’s return also caused a buzz on social media with a Twitter TV audience of 2.9 million people sending 97,000 tweets to make it the No. 2 telecast on Sunday (excluding sports).