Moving ‘The Gilded Age’ to Sundays is a Stroke of HBO Genius

When The Gilded Age Season 2 premieres on HBO and Max this weekend, fans of the Julian Fellowes-created show will notice that not much has changed since the first season of the lavish period drama. Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) is still happy to defy her snooty rich aunt Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) while also living rent free in her posh Manhattan house. Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) is still scheming for new ways to triumph in society despite the fact that she and her husband George (Morgan Spector) are derided as “new money.” And every single shot of the opulent historic drama is chock full of decadent design. Everything about The Gilded Age Season 2 should feel the same to viewers, but HBO has made one major change to the show: they’ve moved it from a Monday night time slot to 9 PM on Sundays.

Now The Gilded Age‘s move from Monday to Sunday could easily be chalked up to the production pipeline slowdown caused by both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. It could be that HBO simply needs to fill an opening in their schedule. However I think there’s more going on. HBO has finally figured out that The Gilded Age is a Sunday night show. It not only deserves to be considered a tentpole of the HBO slate, but it also should do better on Sundays, the same night Downton Abbey dominated TV in the early 2010s.

Sunday night — specifically the 9 PM time slot — has long been where HBO presents their marquee dramas for subscribers. Sunday night at 9 PM is when The Sopranos, True Blood, Game of Thrones, and True Detective have aired. It’s where Euphoria, House of the Dragon, and The White Lotus now reign supreme. And while a Sunday night time slot won’t necessarily guarantee that a show will become a hit, scheduling a drama there is a vote of confidence from HBO.

When HBO decided to schedule The Gilded Age Season 1 on Mondays, it sort of made sense. Craig Mazin’s devastating limited series Chernobyl had actually managed to become a monster hit in the Monday time slot, showing HBO that there was an opportunity to expand their slate on the first night of the work week. By the time The Gilded Age debuted, Mondays had become a prime slot for period fare like Gentleman Jack. Still, I was skeptical that Monday was the right night for a Julian Fellowes-penned soap. That’s because I remembered how Downton Abbey became synonymous with Sunday night TV in the early 2010s…

Downton Abbey first premiered on Masterpiece on PBS in 2011 and became, according to network, an immediate “runaway hit.” Created by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes, the series explored the lives of the Crawleys, a wealthy British family who finds their fortunes upended by the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, and the dutiful servants who worked for them at their sprawling estate. At Downton Abbey‘s peak, it was bringing in 24 million viewers per season. While not quite Game of Thrones numbers, the understated period drama was indeed a phenomenon and remains the number one drama in PBS history.

The Gilded Age isn’t Julian Fellowes’s first follow up to Downton Abbey, but it is the one that follows that show’s formula the closest. In fact, at one point in development, The Gilded Age was intended to be a Downton Abbey prequel series, showing how American heiress Cora Levinson (Elizabeth McGovern) fell in love with her penniless Earl Grantham (Hugh Bonneville). The Gilded Age‘s expansive cast, comprising wealthy estate owners and their staff bustling downstairs, feels like a direct riff on Downton (and the classic show that inspired it, Upstairs, Downstairs). All of which is to say The Gilded Age is designed to attract the same viewers who found themselves tuning into PBS on Sunday nights in the 2010s to find out if Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Cousin Matthew (Dan Stevens) would get married already.

What night did Downton Abbey dominate? Sundays. Where should HBO slot their successor show to Downton Abbey? Sundays. I rest my case.

The Gilded Age borrows many of the tropes and tricks that made Downton Abbey such a beloved smash. It dresses up good old fashioned soap opera storytelling with a patina of luxury, a touch of class, and multiple nods to real history. Both shows are intended to transport viewers to a different time, ruled over by arcane rules of decorum and imperious matriarchs with savage wits. And both The Gilded Age and Downton Abbey are precisely the kinds of shows people want to tuck into on a chilly Sunday night.

The Gilded Age belongs on Sundays.