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"Downton Abbey broke a record with its season three finale in the United States. The episode - which aired on Sunday, February 17 - beat all broadcast and cable competition to become the highest-rated show on American television that evening.   The Carnival Films show, which airs on Masterpiece on PBS in the country, reached an average of 12.3 million viewers, with the entire third series averaging 11.5 million viewers. It has become the highest-rating TV drama in PBS&amp;#039;s history, and has reached over 24 million viewers overall. The numbers for the programme - written by Julian Fellowes and executive produced by Gareth Neame, Liz Trubridge and Julian Fellowes - see a seven million increase on the US ratings for series two. Over the course of the three series, Downton Abbey has won nine Emmys, three Golden Globes and, most recently, the SAG Award for &amp;#039;Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Drama Series&amp;#039;.   Downton Abbey also has the highest number of Emmy nominations for any British show. Carnival Films&amp;#039; managing director Gareth Neame said: &amp;quot;The fact that Downton Abbey was the most-watched programme across all networks for the series finale is truly exceptional. &amp;quot;This has never been done before and it is truly gratifying to see how the US audience&amp;#039;s appreciation grow so much year by year.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/downton-abbey/news/a466910/downton-abbey-breaks-us-television-record/>