Anything under the sun 4 - IO only

Several weeks after Downton Abbey's Maggie Smith declared that the sixth season of the beloved period drama will be her last, we learn that the forthcoming season will be everyone's last. How is that for upstairs-downstairs solidarity?

TVLine broke the sad news Friday afternoon, reporting that multiple sources have confirmed that the Julian Fellowes-created series will shutter after its upcoming sixth season, which is currently being filmed. Per TVLine:

The decision to end Downton was mostly a practical one"the cast's contracts expire at the end of Season 6 and, with one or two possible exceptions, the actors are ready to move on.

"You can keep the show going without Matthew and Sybill, but you can't continue it without the entire Crawley family," an insider notes.

That gives Edith only about nine episodes to find eternal happiness; Mary only about nine chances to find her romantic match; and Carson and Hughes about nine hours to plan and pull off their wedding. (There will be riots if we don't get a proper Carson/Hughes wedding, Fellowes.)

Television viewers may be seeing the last of Lady Mary next season but they won't be seeing the last of Fellowes-created period drama. The Downton Abbey mastermind is creating a series about New York City's millionaire titans of the 1880s for NBC called The Gilded Age.