But that doesn’t mean that the show is going to be hanging up its petticoats anytime soon. In fact, the show could be around for as many as six (!) more years, according to show creator Gareth Neame.

Mr. Neame told the Daily News he hopes to keep the show going for up to 10 seasons. “I think it is going to go on for a while,” he said. “Right now the show is still growing in the U.S. and it would be awful to think of the show ending.”

Somebody should probably let the actors know they'll be around for another six years, because at the rate this flimsy lot are succumbing to eclampsia and the Spanish flu it's not looking good.

While no contracts have been signed, Mr. Neame seems optimistic about the show's longevity. “I would rather let the show run between four and 10 years, I imagine,” Mr. Neame said at the BritWeek Downton Abbey Celebration in Santa Monica.

Christ, 10 seasons. That could mean decades worth of Downton. Think of all the possible plot turns: Mary's baby discovers the Beatles! Thomas gets gay-married! The Dowager Countess gets a Twitter account!

Just please, guys—stay safe. Stay away from cars. Be careful in the next few decades, especially the early 1940s. And for heaven's sake, watch your hands on that electric toaster.

Things were different in the early 20th century. (YouTube)

Well, we would, if they made their pseudo-ephedrine while riding on the backs of stuffed animals!

PBS propaganda (Fox)

Props to Fox & Friends for finding something to talk about on this slow news day: Downton Abbey, the popular British upstairs/downstairs saga that runs on the (publicly funded) PBS network, might be the best weapon conservatives have in popular culture today!

According to maybe-British person Stuart Varney, the show is a massive blow to the politics of the left-leaning liberals who love it because the characters are rich...and nice. "Downton Abbey poses a threat to the left, does it not, Brian," Ms. Varney asks a thoroughly confused Brian Kilmeade. "The left says we got to hate these people, but popular America watches a show that says 'These people are okay!'"


Gretchen Carlson gets shut down for her suggestion that a)Not everyone in America hates rich people and b)Maybe people are just getting bored with the stupidity of reality TV and want to watch a smart program about people talking about historical events against a pretty backdrop.

"You can say all of that, but you miss the point," smarms Mr. Varney, missing the point. "You could dismiss it as high-class soap opera (Editor's Note: Uh...that's not what Carlson was saying), but that misses the point. The politics of Downton Abbey are important, and it's important that they are popular in America today."

The segment then spirals into one long SPOILER ALERT, so we won't even go there. But hopefully this delusional tirade will convince Rush Limbaugh or someone to start funneling money into PBS in the hopes that all liberals will inadvertently start becoming more conservative and pick up some cute, early 20th century English affectations to boot.

2013 Golden Globes, Bill Murray

If you are too busy watching the Australian cycling thing and can't understand what the hell is going on with Twitter (honestly, we don't know who you follow, but no one on our feed actually bothers naming the winners of these things), here are the latest updates for the 2013 Golden Globe Awards.

Best Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER: Argo
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Best Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER:

Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Les Mis

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Hugh Jackman, Les Mis

Best TV Series, Comedy or Musical
WINNER: GIRLS

Best Director
WINNER: Ben Affleck, Argo

Cecil B. DeMille's Lifetime Achievement Award/Freestyle Portion of Evening
WINNER: Jodie Foster

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Lena Dunham, Girls

Best Animated Feature Film
WINNER: Brave

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama
WINNER: Claire Danes, Homeland

Best Foreign Film
WINNER: Amour

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Don Cheadle, House of Lies

Best Screenplay
WINNER: Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
WINNER: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Ed Harris, Game Change

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Kevin Costner, Hatfields & McCoys
(RUNNER-UP: Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Julianne Moore - Game Change

Best Television Series - Drama
WINNER: Homeland

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
WINNER: Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained

Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series
WINNER: Maggie Smith - Downton Abbey

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
WINNER: Damien Lewis - Homeland

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Game Change

Best Original Song
WINNER: "Skyfall," Adele

Best Original Score - Motion Picture
WINNER: Life of Pi

Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
WINNER: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Lining Playbook (Also, best speech? Y/N?)

Golden Globe nom-toppers. (Various)

Not too many surprises this year in the nominations, announced today, for the 2013 Golden Globe Awards. This year, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will be making history as the first female duo to host the ceremony, held on Jan. 13., but other than that, it's all Lincoln (seven nominations), Argo (five) and Django Unchained (ditto).

In television, we're looking at dramas like Game Change (five), Homeland (four, including one for "The Bear" Patinkin), Downton Abbey and, yikes ... how did The Newsroom (two) manage to get on there? That's more nominations than Mad Men (one) received! Comedies remained from last year: Girls, 30 Rock and Modern Family topped the chart. HBO shot to the top of the chart with 17 nominations total, and in a distant second place came Showtime, with seven.

Read the full list below:

Best Motion Picture, Drama

Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Misérables
Moonrise Kingdom
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Silver Linings Playbook

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Richard Gere, Arbitrage
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Jack Black, Bernie
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Ewan McGregor, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Bill Murray, Hyde Park on the Hudson

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Judi Dench, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Maggie Smith, Quartet
Meryl Streep, Hope Springs

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Alan Arkin, Argo
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

Best Director

Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Best Screenplay, Motion Picture

Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty
Tony Kushner, Lincoln
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Quentin Taratino, Django Unchained
Chris Terrio, Argo

Find out which star's daughter is Miss Golden Globe

Best Foreign Language Film

Amour (Austria)
A Royal Affair (Denmark)
The Intouchables (France
Kon-Tiki (Norway)
Rust and Bone  (France)

Best Animated Feature Film

Brave
Frankenweenie
Hotel Transylvania
Rise of the Guardians
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Original Song, Motion Picture

"For You," Act of Valor, Monty Powell & Keith Urban
"Not Running Anymore," Stand Up Guys, Jon Bon Jovi
"Safe and Sound," The Hunger Games, Taylor Swift. John Paul White, Joy Williams & T Bone Burnett
"Skyfall," Skyfall, Adele & Paul Epworth
"Suddenly," Les Misérables, Claude-Michel Schonberg & Alain Boublil

Best Original Score, Motion Picture

Mychael Danna, Life of Pi
Alexandre Desplat, Argo
Dario Marianelli, Anna Karenina
Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil, Cloud Atlas
John Williams, Lincoln

Best TV Movie or Miniseries

Game Change
The Girl
Hatfields & McCoys
The Hour
Political Animals

Best TV Series, Drama

Boardwalk Empire
Breaking Bad
Downton Abbey
Homeland
The Newsroom

Best TV Series, Comedy

The Big Bang Theory
Episodes
Girls
Modern Family
Smash

Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama

Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Damian Lewis, Homeland

Best Actor, TV Series Comedy

Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Don Cheadle, House of Lies
Louis CK, Louie
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Best Actress in a TV Series, Drama

Connie Britton, Nashville
Glenn Close, Damages
Claire Danes, Homeland
Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey
Julianna Marguiles, The Good Wife

Best Actress in a TV Series, Comedy

Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Lena Dunham, Girls
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie

Kevin Costner, Hatfields & McCoys
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
Woody Harrelson, Game Change
Toby Jones, The Girl
Clive Owen, Hemingway & Gellhorn

Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie

Julianne Moore, Game Change
Nicole Kidman, Hemingway & Gellhorn
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Asylum
Sienna Miller, The Girl
Sigourney Weaver, Political Animals

Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Mini-Series or TV Movie

Max Greenfield, New Girl
Ed Harris, Game Change
Danny Huston, Magic City
Mandy Patinkin, Homeland
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or TV Movie

Hayden Panettiere, Nashville
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Sarah Paulson, Game Change
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family

Cecile B. DeMille Award

Jodie Foster

Dan Stevens (Getty Images)

Via Vulture, a somewhat spoiler-y report that will trouble anyone rooting for the Matthew-Mary romance on British soap opera (come on, it is a soap opera) Downton Abbey--actor Dan Stevens may leave the show after the beginning of the as-yet-unshot fourth season. Mr. Stevens, the show's romantic lead, appears in the third season (airing stateside early in 2013), but has publicly made noise about wanting to depart the show; he has also recently pursued extracurricular interests, serving as a judge for this year's Booker Prize--a surprisingly demanding duty--and appearing on Broadway in The Heiress.

Dan Stevens and Michelle Dockery of 'Downton Abbey'

Though its hordes of U.S. fans are still waiting for the third season of Downton Abbey to begin airing on PBS, that season ended last night in the UK with 10.1 million viewers, according to Deadline, making it the show's highest-rated season yet for Brit broadcaster ITV.

The third season, costarring Shirley MacLaine, will begin January 6 in the U.S., and it will certainly not be the end of the Downton saga; as with the second season, there's a two-hour movie wrapping up loose ends after the season. And there may be even more, you Grantham gluttons--the Deadline report features creator Julian Fellowes saying he envisions at least a fourth season.

The Masterpiece franchise Downton Abbey has given PBS--perpetually under threat, not least by Presidential candidate Mitt Romney--a new lease on life. Longtime Masterpiece producer Rebecca Eaton, whose work to this point had been widely praised but never in recent memory as widely viewed across America, told The Observer in March that she eagerly awaited more Downton, but "We have to try to keep Julian Fellowes alive—we can’t just work him into the ground."

Dan Stevens in The Heiress.

It was February when we first met up with Dan Stevens. He was standing in a wet, muddy field in Cornwall in southern England, delighting a group of extras with an exaggerated American accent. The actor was between takes on Summer in February, an indie film he was producingand starring in, about a 19th-century English artists’ commune.

Mr. Stevens was tired. He’d been rattling between Cornwall and London while shooting the third season of Downton Abbey (currently airing in the U.K., but not due out here until January), in which he plays the excruciatingly eligible Matthew Crawley, heir apparent to the old English estate. It is his career-defining role, and the breakout success of the show over the past few years has opened a number of doors on both sides of the Atlantic. He says it’s been the most productive period of his life, and the variety of his ventures that is truly impressive.

First there is the Man Booker, Britain’s most prestigious literary prize, which was last week awarded to Hilary Mantel’s sequel Bring Up The Bodies. While appearing on BBC’s The Review Show in 2011, Mr. Stevens launched into a scathing diatribe about the “readability” requirement for that year’s competition winner. A couple of weeks later, he received a phone call from Sir Peter Stothard (this year’s chairman) inviting him to be on the 2012 panel. This was, of course, “a privilege,” he said, but reading 145 novels in seven months, then rereading the longlist and rere-reading the shortlist is quite an “added strain” for someone with a day job. Between almost every take in the new series of Downton, he would force his waythrough a few more paragraphs of literary fiction. The costume department even sewed a Kindle-size pocket into his jacket for efficiency’s sake.

Along with diligently working toward the eventual completion of Summer in February (a seven-year process, so far), he is starring in Vamps, a romantic comedy by Amy Heckerling of Clueless fame, in which he plays Joey Van Helsing (the son of the notorious Dracula character), a young man who falls in love with a bloodsucker, much to the ire of his stake-wielding father, played by Wallace Shawn. “You think everyone is a vampire!” he complains to his dad at one point. The film is due out 24 hours after he makes his full Broadway debut.

Meanwhile, in his free time, Mr. Stevens launched his own online literary quarterly, The Junket, which he put together with a group of Cambridge friends who wanted an outlet for their writing. In his role as editor at large, Mr. Stevens “sharpened his pencil” for only one piece, a witty essay about the boredom of being on safari until you get the taste for blood.

Now he’s here on Broadway, playing the lead in The Heiress, the Tony Award-winning adaptation by Ruth and Augustus Goetz of the Henry James novel Washington Square. It’sa play that periodically returns to town for a limited run of sell-out shows, and this will be no exception. Particularly in light of the caliber of talent in the cast. Oscar-nominated Jessica Chastain and David Strathairn play a wealthy father and daughter, and Mr. Stevens is the canny suitor. (Sound familiar?)

Recently, sitting across the table at Cafe Edison in Midtown, dressed like an English country gent (tweed jacket, white shirt, tweed cap), he seemed invigorated by the challenge.“This feels big,” he said, picking up his coffee with both hands. “Uprooting the family and coming here has been a sort of seismic shift.” He has packed up his house in London and moved everyone—including his 2-month-old son, Aubrey, 2-year-old daughter, Willow, and wife of four years, jazz singer Susie Hariet, who is seven years his senior—across the water. It seems a little drastic for a brief stint on Broadway, but the family was eager to travel.

The quiet, soft-spoken Ms. Hariet had also been in Cornwall for the filming of Summer in February, and was remarkable source of tranquility on the set. It was striking how comfortable the two of them were in what must have been an otherwise complicated situation—what with her husband swiftly becoming a trans-Atlantic heartthrob, and all. Frequently, Ms. Hariet, then pregnant, would stand off to one side with her daughter and watch her spouse perform steamily romantic scenes, one take after another.

Hey, that’s showbiz.

The opportunity to star in The Heiress came along unexpectedly. “We weren’t necessarily thinking of doing a play,” Mr. Stevens recalled over eggs benedict. The first-person plural he casually employs refers to his wider family: a group of agents and PR-types who, over the last few years, have made a series of important decisions about his career’s “direction.” They are a tight, highly professional group of people (who are eager to walk with you through every step of writing a profile of him), only a few of whom are based in the U.K. This may give some idea as to the ambitions of Team Stevens, given that, up until a few months ago, the actor was solely working out of England. It also may give a clue as to whether he’s likely to continue in Downton Abbey, season four—if indeed there is one.

“I think the bar for fulfillment has been raised,” Mr. Stevens said enigmatically when asked about his swiftly evolving professional ambitions. “There’s a certain kind of project I’m looking for now.”

In other words, Perhap$ ...

On Broadway, the role of Morris—opposite Ms. Chastain’s Catherine Sloper—is the sort that comes easily to the 30-year-old actor: wealthy, charming and attractive, but with an egotistical complexity that Mr. Stevens may find more challenging. “It’s a character you really have to get your head around,”he said. And then there’s that 19th-century New York accent.

In recent years, American audiences have embraced a line of British actors who have trained in England and taken the leap from stage to small screen while employing a trim American accent to their advantage. Most notably we’ve seen Hugh Laurie’s House, Dominic West in The Wire and Damian Lewis in Homeland.

These are three names that regularly came up over our breakfast.

“It’s industry legend that no American actor wanted to take it on because House had no redeeming qualities ... which is precisely why a British actor would take it on!” Mr. Stevens said, laughing into his coffee. “But doors are open over here that aren’t necessarily open back home. It’s very heartening to see those sort of guys do well.”

Mr. Stevens said he has always wanted to spend some “serious” time in New York. “It’s such a creative place,” he noted. “It’s frenetic and energetic and can be very confusing. At the same time, if you’re as busy as I am, the city fits around you. I’ve been here at quieter points in my life and I just thought, ‘Wow, these guys move fast,’ and this time I’m like ‘Hmm, yeah, this seems about my pace.’

“It’s a mad, mad city but I’m in a mad place at the minute.”

Mr. Stevens’s rise has been remarkably steady. Adopted at birth, he gained an academic scholarship to a prestigious English academy, where at 13 he landed the role of Macbeth in the school play, beating out children five years older than him for the part. His audition has since been written about by the director, Jonathan Smith, his former teacher, now a friend and the author of Summer in February. Mr. Smith is one of two major figures who have undeniably assisted his ever-inflating career

The other is Sir Peter Hall.

After high school, Mr. Stevens studied English at Cambridge, where he began to shed his “willfully difficult” attitude, and discovered comedy. Performing with the prestigious sketch group the Cambridge Footlights, he also tried stand-up and began venturing to London to entertain rooms of as few as 12 people. “I never aspired to be a stand-up comedian, but I always wanted to try it,” he said. Admittedly, many of his appearancesfell “flat on their face,” but even that, he said, was an experience.

While at Cambridge, Mr. Stevens impressed as Macbeth again, this time alongside Rebecca Hall, the daughter of Sir Peter, a founding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, who naturally came to watch. The man has seen “the Scottish play” plenty of times; he’s not easily impressed.

Sir Peter Hall subsequently gave Mr. Stevens his first West End debut and his first West End lead, casting him in four productions in total, including Orlando in As You Like It, which eventually transferred to New York. Four years later came Downton. Now, here he is again.

“You have to remember the people to be thankful to along the way,” Mr. Stevens said with signature humility. “But I always maintained a degree of self-belief.”

No doubt that’s getting easier, what with the rapturous reception Downton has enjoyed.

“I remember, we had the staff from Buckingham Palace come and visit the set,” Mr. Stevens recalled. “They serve in the royal household, and they said every Sunday night—I think they all live on the top floor, in the servants’ quarters of Buckingham Palace—they all gather in one room and watch the show. That is astonishing.”

Whether another season of Downton will come to pass is anyone’s guess. He’s a little coy about the subject.

“If I was given the opportunity to work more here, I would take it,” he said, an admission that, while benign, seems guaranteed to chill the blood of Downton fanatics. Then he added, meaningfully, “I think it will all become clear.”

A week after our breakfast, Mr. Stevens emailed as he was returning from London, where he’d just presented Hilary Mantel with her Man Booker prize. He was due back in New York that evening and expected on stage to recommence previews for The Heiress. He was exhausted.

“Last night was momentous,” he wrote. “[I’m] celebrating the end of an extraordinarily challenging few months.”

editorial@observer.com

A full list of nominees is available here: nominees of note include Lena Dunham, nominated as a producer, actress, and writer for Girls, as well as the thirteenth career nomination for Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Veep and the cementing of Claire Danes's career comeback with a Best Actress in a Drama nomination for Homeland.