The period drama attracted universal acclaim for its first season, having won six Emmys last year. It’s also nominated for four Golden Globes this year. It drew 5 million viewers to each episode – some seriously big figures for PBS – and has generally become the most-loved British series since Top Gear.

From this Sunday (9 EST), the grand old English castle and its ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’ inhabitants return for an eight-episode run that stretches from the Battle of the Somme in 1916 to the Spanish ‘flu pandemic in 1919.

So what’s the appeal of this quintessentially British production? Executive producer Rebecca Eaton told USA Today:

“It’s just a damn good story. That is what people are responding to — it’s so beautifully done. They’re fascinated with the Englishness of it.”

Downton is created, written and produced by Julian Fellowes (who also wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Gosford Park in 2011), and he thinks that sensitive handling of social inequality is what appeals about the drama:

“What makes it popular is we treat all the characters the same. We don’t suggest that the ‘upstairs’ people are more important than the ‘downstairs’ people. That was a decision that turned out to be right for the zeitgeist now.”

And it almost goes without saying that Brits seem to love the show – the final episode in season one brought in 12.4 million – more than one-fifth of Britain’s 60 million population.

Will you be tuning in to Downton this weekend?

Downton Abbey Back on Screens This Sunday is a post from: The Inquisitr

Mitt Romney is on the defensive with his plans to cut government spending.  The Massachusetts Republican had to tell an audience in Iowa that “We are not going to kill Big Bird” when asked about his spending plans, according to the Huffington Post.  Romney wants Sesame Street and other public programming to be paid for by advertisements and not the taxpayers.

He also signaled that under his administration, the National Endowment for the Arts would also be cut, asked to survive on private donations and not taxpayers dollars.

Romney made a statement that basically spells out how he views every program in America.

“My test is, is a program so critical that it’s worth borrowing money from China to pay for it?”

Democrats were looking at his proposals to defund the arts with a bit a skepticism, as the National Endowment for the Arts and National Public Radio have long been a desired treat on the Republican Chopping block.

“The GOP should be less preoccupied with silencing cookie monster and more focused on reviving the economy,” replied Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.).

in 1995, when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House, Lowley had invited Bert and Ernie to testify before Congress when Gingrich tried to cut their funding then.

Romney says that when he is President he will cut $500 billion dollars a year from the federal budget by the end of his first term.  While this would be a drastic cut, it still would more than a trillion dollars a year short of a balanced budget if spending continues at its current levels.

Since losing to John McCain in the 2008 Republican Primary, Mitt Romney has been running an aggressive campaign to become the nominee to face President Barack Obama in 2012.  He is currently polling second in most key battleground states.

Watch a video of Romney telling the Iowa crowd his plans for Big Bird.

Mitt Romney: “I Am Not Going To Kill Big Bird” [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

The one big thing that I don’t like about a lot of the so-called online learning is that for the most part it is nothing more than a money machine bilking the government out of millions of dollars which was reported on in a recent documentary on PBS. However Bill Gates is one of the people who thinks that done right technology could go a long way to reducing the ever increasing cost of going to college and university.

At the recent Technonomy conference held in San Francisco Bill Gates suggested that technology could reduce that cost of a post-secondary school education down to $2,000

“College, except for the parties, needs to be less place-based,” he said.

Moving more learning activities online can bring down the soaring cost of a college degree.

“Only technology can bring [college tuition] down, not just to $20,000, but to $2,000,” he said, citing price tags as high as $50,000 for a year of college.

Gates predicted that technology could soon make place-based learning five times less important for college and university students.

Source: Hillicon Valley

As nice as that sounds we are a very, very long way from that vision as you can see when you watch College Inc from PBS.

According to Bill Gates college should cost $2,000 is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to the Reddit blog, material for the show will come from hot stories on the Reddit front page every week, with show discussions occuring on a new yourweek page on Reddit. For those not local, the pilot episode and future episodes will be available online.

It’s an interesting experiment from Reddit, and it’s a show I’d watch. I’m still a frequent Digg visitor but I find the content on Reddit has more substance these days, to the point where I’ll often open 75% of the articles on the front page of Reddit where with Digg some days I wont even open one.

A Reddit Powered TV Show: I’d Like To See That is a post from: The Inquisitr