Quoted from that fine website – Television Without Pity:

My point, and I do have one, is that by staggering the broadcast of a mystery show such as Sherlock, you are aiding and abetting shady providers of your fine programs — the very providers you (and your for-profit counterparts) spend time, energy and money trying to shut down. Your nonsensical scheduling does more to increase the demand for shady services than all the viral marketing in the world could ever accomplish. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes’ cognitive powers to realize that your scheduling costs you viewers.

In the next year or decade, or however long it takes Moffat and company to produce the next season (series to you Brits) of Sherlock, will you please get your collective acts together and agree to broadcast the show on the same schedule? Given the five hour time difference between UK and the U.S. East Coast, unlike Benedict Cumberbatch, I’m not asking for a simulcast (although I’d greedily accept one). I can avoid spoilers for an afternoon. I cannot avoid them for two and a half weeks.

I don’t have much to add to this, and I co-sign this opinion – read more here.

As a fan of several British TV shows, I am beyond convinced that allowing Sherlock and Downton Abbey the same broadcast schedule in the UK and in the US will add many more viewers to the audience of those shows.  In this modern world with the internet and many new ways to push content to viewers (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc), there is simply no reason to have this generation’s version of videotape delays on shows such as Sherlock and Downton Abbey.

There are popular British shows that have the same airdates in America and in the UK. Ever heard of DOCTOR WHO? That’s the most obvious example. So what’s different about these British shows? I don’t know the answer to that question.  It should be noted by the powers that be at ITV and the BBC that there is profit in doing the right thing for the US viewers of their programming.   Consider that if you will, important decision makers across the pond.