'Downton Abbey Celebrates The Grand Finale' to Air on NBC & Peacock

Downton Abbey continues to close out its final feature film installment in style. As the arrival of the 1930s marks the end of the good times (or "good times" such as they were), the Granthams will finally take their leave of us once and for all in September 2025 with the third and last movie, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. However, before they leave, the film's cast has one last promotional tour to celebrate the film's release in theaters. Fittingly, that tour will include a specifically created one-hour special for the fans of the show in America who turned an odd little one-off series from ITV into a global phenomenon. 

Called Downton Abbey Celebrates the Grand Finale, the special will not air on your local PBS station. Although public broadcasting is where the series originated, since NBC Universal, whose parent company, Comcast, owns Downton Abbey production studio Carnival Films, launched its own (not very successful) streaming service, the series has slowly shifted from PBS Passport to Peacock, with Downton finally exiting PBS for good post-pandemic. 

Along with the special, Peacock announced that all six seasons of the series will be available for subscribers to watch starting Monday, September 1, 2025. Both of the Downton Abbey feature films, Downton Abbey: The Movie and Downton Abbey: A New Era, will also be prominently featured for subscribers. (The third film is expected to debut on Peacock by the end of the year, which will put all of the franchise in one place for the first time.)

Here's the special's synopsis:

Downton Abbey Celebrates the Grand Finale will feature conversations with the cast of the film as they reunite in London at the Savoy Hotel to share memories and never-before-heard stories from their time with the show and the films. In addition, the special will also feature a world exclusive sneak preview scene from Downtown Abbey: The Grand Finale.

The special will feature appearances by the majority of the core cast members from the original TV series. The roster includes everyone from the original upstairs family, including Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Penelope Wilton, and Allen Leech, as well as most of the original downstairs crew, Jim Carter, Joanne Froggatt, Phyllis Logan, Sophie McShera, and Lesley Nicol. 

Fan favorites who joined along the way will also turn out, with Raquel Cassidy, Kevin Doyle, Michael Fox, and Harry Hadden-Paton, as well as guest star Paul Giamatti, production designer Donal Woods, costume designer Anna Mary Scott Robbins, and composer John Lunn.

In addition to those in the special, Downton Abbey's final film stars returnees Brendan Coyle, Robert James-Collier, Douglas Reith, and Dominic West, plus guest stars Joely Richardson (Renegade Nell), Simon Russell Beale (Mary & George), British-American actor Arty Froushan (House of the Dragon), and American actor Alessandro Nivola (Black Narcissus). 

As always, Julian Fellowes wrote the screenplay, with director Simon Curtis once again at the helm of the feature film. The film will also feature a tribute to the late Maggie Smith.

Downton Abbey Celebrates the Grand Finale debuts on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, at 9 p.m. ET, and streams the next day on Peacock. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale will arrive in theaters on Friday, September 12, 2025.