I found this interesting article from The Philadelphia Inquirer about NBC potentially dropping the ball by not picking up Downton Abbey to run on the network. Unfortunately, it only really sort of grazes over everything, beginning a few interesting threads of thought without really delving into them, but it has some good quotes and info about NBCUniversal to add to our discussions of whether or not it would have worked. The article seems to blame the previous NBC administration for not picking it up and there is a brief mention that short-run series like Downton don’t really work on American TV, though it never really discusses how/why NBC might have been able to make it work.
http://articles.philly.com/2012-03-11/business/31145416_1_nbc-universal-downton-abbey-current-nbc-executives
I think it is easy to pick on NBC in this instance for not picking up “Downton Abbey,” but simply put, I think it is the right move for several reasons. First of all, to my knowledge a shorter-run British program has not been scheduled on a major US network. More importantly, NBC would not have creative control of “Downton Abbey.” In my opinion, the show is best suited for somewhere like where it is, on PBS, as a popular, trendy niche program. It is easy to argue a program like “Downton Abbey” that is currently all the rage and transcends popular culture would be a solution to NBC’s problems, but what the network needs is programming that is both long-lasting and entertaining to a wide audience. “Downton Abbey” is short run, a British program, and too niche for American tastes to really make a lasting distance for NBC. While picking up such a program may have drawn attention to NBC and maybe helped a little in the short run, it would not have made a lasting difference. NBC is certainly having problems as a network, but “Downton Abbey” is not the solution. Additionally, it may have hurt the popularity of the program in the United States–rather than perceived as trendy “quality” television, “Downton Abbey” could have been yet another failed network television experiment (though unique as a British series to do so.) NBC should and will solve its problems in other ways, and “Downton Abbey” is thankfully right where it belongs.