'Miss Austen' & 'Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light' Officially Confirmed for 2025

Masterpiece gave a rundown of the 2024 schedule of British shows coming to PBS on Sunday nights at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, starting with March 2024's Nolly, and mentioning several anticipated titles, including Moonflower Murders. However, when it came to two of the most significant announcements from Masterpiece in the last few months, Miss Austen and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light, executive producer Susanne Simpson broke the news those titles won't be out until 2025.

That announcement wasn't the biggest surprise out of the Masterpiece panel. (That went to the cancelation of World on Fire.) But it was a bit of a blow for fans who are super gungho about getting more Jane Austen-adjacent stories after the end of Sanditon in 2023 or who have been waiting for the Wolf Hall sequel since the first one aired in 2015. The hope was for both of these series to arrive in the fall of 2024, possibly (or probably) alongside Moonflower Murders, and this push to 2025 means a longer wait.

However, it does suggest something unusual for PBS and Masterpiece is afoot, something fans of the network have not seen in about a decade, at least since Downton Abbey ended in early 2016: a play for Emmy votes. Most shows that debut in the spring, especially from March-May, are doing so because networks are placing them in prime position to be top of mind for Emmy voters when voting comes around in June. Masterpiece hasn't been in that game since Downton, partly because it hasn't had a zeitgeist-level hit but primarily due to the sheer overload of peak TV entries. There just wasn't room to be noticed. 

However, as noted this week at the TCA press tour, peak TV levels finally started dropping in 2023, and are expected to keep falling in 2024 and onwards. While big-budget shows won't go away, there will be fewer of them. Moreover, there won't be as many networks competing in that space as consolidation continues, with more minor streaming services giving up making their own series, if not outright collapsing into larger ones.

However, for all that, PBS may not be a big player; it is not about to fold up or stop producing shows. Streaming has made it so local stations can create more than ever before. And Masterpiece is a big part of that. The original Wolf Hall was one of the anthology series' last big Emmy contenders, bringing back the cast, now studded with an even more all-star cast, many of whom have become even bigger names than they were the last time around, makes it a very attractive proposition for the Emmy voter base indeed. 

Miss Austen and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light will both debut on most PBS stations, the PBS App, PBS Passport, and the PBS Masterpiece Channel in 2025. Mark your calendars.