[Editor's Note: TVWW contributor Donna J. Plesh died April 2, 2015, from ovarian cancer. She was 71. Donna covered television since the early 1980s, initially for the Orange County Register and its TV magazine. She also was a member of the Television Critics Association. Donna was always a cheerful spirit within the TVWW network and often gave readers a kind, up-close viewpoint in her interviews with a wide variety of television stars. She will be missed.]

PASADENA, CA -- Downton Abbey and Sherlock are bringing in big viewers to PBS. That may not sound like news, but PBS Chairman and CEO Paula Kerger outlined some facts and figures about those shows Monday at the PBS executive session at the Television Critics Association winter press tour that were both surprising and encouraging. 

“Two weeks ago, over 10 million Americans tuned in for the [U.S. Season 3] premiere of Downton Abbey, which was an increase of 22 percent over last season," Kerger said. "But what’s really striking about that day was what happened after the television broadcast.

"In the 24 hours after episode one aired, it was streamed over 400,000 times across desktops and mobile apps and devices, which was a 57 percent increase in the number of streams over the first episode of last season. For the full week following the premiere, the number rose to over a million streams. On social media, the premiere generated a minor uproar, with 97,000 tweets in one day, and over 15 million potential impressions,” Kerger added.

Speaking of Sherlock, which began its Season 3 Sunday night, it reached an average audience of 4 million viewers (Nielsen fast nationals, P2+). PBS says this represents a 25 percent increase in average audience compared to the premiere of Sherlock Season 2 in 2012. This audience is 81 percent higher than PBS’s average audience at 10-11:30 p.m. Sundays.

There’s more good news for Sherlock fans: There will be a fourth season for the legendary detective. Co-creator, writer and executive producer Steven Moffat spoke to TVWW, and said:

“We’re still talking schedules and diaries and have an awful lot of people to talk to. I would assume we would do about the same [number of episodes]. But we will definitely make more Sherlocks. There hasn’t been any doubt about it [returning] for a very long while. We’re never in a hurry. We want it good. Do you want it good or do you want it Tuesday?” he said with a laugh.

Series star Benedict Cumberbatch confirmed he will be doing a fourth season. “I’m doing it. Yeah, I’ve commissioned it. I’m doing it, definitely.”

Great ratings for the PBS Sunday night dramas are one thing, but Kerger said PBS’s overall ratings have increased markedly.

“During the 2012-2013 season, PBS’s primetime ratings grew 7 percent making us now No. 8 among all networks in television, cable or broadcast... At the same time, we’re reaching more Americans than ever across additional platforms. Americans watched more than 321 million videos across PBS’s web, mobile and connected device platforms in December. That’s a 71 percent increase over last year."

In other programming announcements, Kerger said that Last Tango in Halifax will return for a second season on June 29. The drama stars Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid as a couple in their 70s who have rekindled their romance after some 60 years. PBS Chief Programming Officer Beth Hoppe told TVWW “a third season has been commissioned in the U.K.” She added that she anticipates it will air on PBS in the future.

In addition, Jacobi and Ian McKellen will star in Vicious, a new comedy for PBS about a gay couple who have lived together in a small London flat for nearly 50 years. Constantly picking each other apart and holding on to petty slights for decades, Freddie and Stuart are always at each other’s throats, cracking snide remarks aimed at the other’s age, appearance and flaws. However, underneath their vicious, co-dependent fighting, they have a deep love for one another. It premieres July 6.